bitflipper

Got your wi-fi disabled on that laptop?

At last Saturday's gig I had a MIDI cable fail. I didn't have a spare. That's on me. But in my defense I have never had a 5-pin DIN cable fail. Ever. This particular one was 40 years old. So for the first time since the 80's I was ordering a new MIDI cable. Well, I was already on the Sweetwater site ordering a new XLR cable to replace the latest victim of my puppy. That one hurt, it was one of my extra-long ones that go between the mixer and active PA speakers. Went ahead and ordered a pack of 2.

50% of marriages end in divorce. That's a depressing statistic until you consider how the other 50% end.

Oddly, expression pedals aren't universal. I have multiple swell/expression pedals but most are rarely used because they don't work with everything. The one that does get used is a cheap plastic one from M-Audio. It squeaks and it moves around on the floor because it's so light (a constant frustration on stage). But it works with everything (switchable polarity) and can even be used as an inline volume pedal. 29 bucks from Sweetwater. When used as an expression controller, it needs a 1/4" TRS cable.

I've always been a big fan of vocal harmony, and was bonkers over The Byrds back in the day. It was years before I realized that was all Crosby and his knack for finding the best interweaving harmonies. Tambourine Man sounds huge, but listen closely and it's just McGuinn and Crosby. One of the few people in his class in that regard was Graham Nash, so naturally they made a great team. Even when backing Neil Young, who couldn't nail a harmony to save his life.

If you can insert a new instance, then the issue is that it had been installed in a different location when you previously used it in old projects (either the DLL or the sample library). I don't think there is a way to determine where it was previously installed, but if you can guess it there is a way to recreate the old path and redirect it to the new location. Looks like your only way forward is to delete and replace those old instances. As for why it fails to bounce, that's a new one to me. If CbB actually crashes, there will be a crash dump that can be analyzed by Cakewalk. Can you freeze the instrument instead of bouncing to a new track?

Yeh, he took it especially hard. I wonder if anyone ever suggested "Keith, maybe you could just play a little slower."

Tbh, I'm surprised he made it to 81 given his history of over-the-top drug and alcohol use.

My nightmare. Just being down to nine usable fingers of late freaks me out. My gear's still in the van from Saturday's gig. I'm scared to unload and potentially hurt my back even worse than it is. I've got until Sunday's rehearsal to get it done, so I guess I'll start today with the small stuff. Bapu helps to motivate me with his gentle reminders that I've promised a synth track for the latest Citizen Regen project. I'm on it, Ed. Soon.

Holy scheizer! I've been through a few drummers, but none of them actually died. Most of them were just doing their best to shorten their lives with drugs 'n booze and stressful relationships. AFAIK, none were actually successful.

So you lost your musical partner as well as your life partner. Man, that sucks. How long has it been since you played? I ask because I did the opposite: I had been mostly inactive (as far as live music; recording had become my primary outlet) before my wife's death, and joined a band afterward for therapeutic reasons. It worked. I have new friends, a reason to practice, and didn't become the bitter old hermit I feared I was headed for. Losing your partner is, of course, hard. But for me it was hard in ways I hadn't anticipated, such as feeling adrift with no purpose and having an identity crisis more typical of what teenagers go through. Getting back into live performance reminded me of who I am. Maybe you should give it a try. Not joining a band necessarily, or anything requiring a commitment. Just attending a jam session, perhaps. Or an online collaboration.

Can you insert a fresh instance of DP, into either an existing or new project?

"Speakercise". I'm going to use that. 18 gigs a month. Cheese und crackers, I can't imagine doing that now, at my age. When I was 25, playing 6 nights a week for 50 weeks a year wasn't a big deal at all. Finishing a gig and jumping into the van for a 10-hour drive to the next one was normal. Red Hot Beef 'N Bean burritos from a truckstop microwave at 4:00 AM, delicious. Now, I play out at most 4 times a month and even that's pretty draining. But it beats going to a gym. You and me both, brother. Except I'd still do it with or without an audience. A month after my wife died, I played New Year's Eve at an Elks lodge to a dozen morose old men sitting at the bar staring vacantly into their beers. It should have been depressing, but staying at home in a big silent house watching fireworks on TV - that would have been way more pathetic. Life with a little music in it is always a little bit better.

Try increasing your buffer size. First thing that comes to mind is that the LP-64 is more CPU-intensive than the Sonitus Multiband due to its use of linear-phase filters. The phrase "some noise" could mean a lot of things, one of which is dropouts caused by buffer exhaustion.

I've not heard of any issues with Hornet plugins in particular, so we'll need more info to help you out. Let's start by clarifying "crash". A screenshot might clear it up.

Good troubleshooting, Sean. If you could edit your topic description to add [SOLVED], that'll help more people find this thread.

I wonder if anyone's ever done an analysis of life expectancies for different musical specialties. Maybe I'm still in mourning over Neil Peart, but it does seem that drummers generally don't enjoy long longevity. Sure, 69 doesn't sound young, but it depends on which side of 69 you're on.

Oh, wouldn't that be sweet. It would have to be able to climb stairs, though. And rough terrain. I'm thinking about the outdoor gigs I've done where we had to lug everything across grass and gravel. This was the best single investment I've ever made. Get the one with the 8" wheels on the front and 10" wheels on the back. It'll roll over everything. Well, almost everything. I didn't see a pothole once and dumped all my gear onto the street. Yeh, but you're probably old enough to remember when PA speakers required two people just to lift them out of the truck. And you'd probably have 4 or more of them. I had bi-amped PA cabs in the 70's with separate tweeters, and those tweeters alone weighed 50 lbs each. They had separate passive crossovers, also heavy, and a massive amplifier. Today, my little QSCs are only 32 lbs each. I never thought that their light weight might actually make them more dangerous, because if they'd weighed 100 lbs I wouldn't have been lifting them by myself. And there's the warning for younger folks who still think they're invincible. Back problems tend to never go away. I had my initial injury at age 30. Like you, it laid me up for a week where I couldn't walk. I foolishly assumed that would be the end of it. But back issues have continued to plague me ever since. I'm sure you're familiar with the Code of Tall Guys, which says that while it's impolite to volunteer to reach something for someone, you can never deny a request. My band's tall guy is also the youngest member at 28, so double the expectations. I try to be appreciative and not holler "hey, tall kid!" when I need to drape a speaker cable on a high nail. I like the kid so much that I will actually pretend to listen when he's complaining about his current girlfriend of the week being an insufferable PIA.

Don't sweat it. Lots of folks here are on Win7. It's not an issue if the computer is dedicated to being a DAW, especially if it's normally offline. Most, like me, landed on Win10 for reasons other than audio. Everybody hated Win8, and few are embracing Win11. But 10 is working great.

You are describing what a limiter does. A limiter is a type of compressor, but with a sharp knee and high compression ratio. In other words, it takes no action until the signal level reaches a specified threshold and then clamps it down pretty aggressively. It's what you use in the situation you're describing. Cakewalk does include a limiter, but I suspect a poll would reveal that most users prefer third-party plugins such as this one. If that's too pricey for you, here's a free one that's pretty good, albeit harder to use. Depending on your musical genre, you may find a clipper useful. It's a type of limiter that's extremely aggressive, to the point of distortion. Most limiters try to not alter the sound by their actions. With clippers, sound alteration is the point. I rarely use them myself because they're too heavy-handed for my taste. A so-called "soft" clipper lies between a hard clipper and a conventional limiter. Here's a good one that's 30 bucks but you can try it out for free.

I was an 8.5 holdout for a long time, too. I didn't take to X1, was disappointed with all the problems that naturally came with such a major rewrite. Bought X2 and X3 too, but decided 8.5 did everything I needed, and had become so natural that it was transparent to the process. I continued to use XP for a long time, too. Same reasons. My motivator to change was a really good Kontakt library that was too big for the memory limitations of the 32-bit world. I resented the forced move at the time, but today I don't regret the change at all. I was able to put back the keyboard shortcuts I was used to, some going back to Cakewalk 1.0 for DOS. I still wish I had the option of representing automation in the 8.5 fashion, which I prefer, but got used to that change pretty quickly. For the most part, the transition was completely painless. All the old projects work in CbB (I even found an old floppy with Cakewalk 1.0 projects and imported them as well!). All the plugins from SONAR work, too. You can keep SONAR installed, as it and CbB can co-exist just fine, so there's no risk of losing past projects. SONAR's chief architect and all-around helpful guy Noel Borthwick is still on the case, adding new goodies and fixing anything that's broken. Is there anything I can do in CbB but couldn't do in 8.5? Not really. But stability is better (e.g. a crashing plugin is far less likely to crash the DAW) and some new features are genuinely useful (e.g. articulation maps). In terms of comfort and familiarity and not having to think about the DAW while creating music, I'm right back where I was with SONAR 8.5.

Yup, what doesn't kill you...

Getting old sucks. Yeh, you have the benefit of experience and the ability to keep things in perspective. But damn, sometimes it hurts. Earlier in the week I injured my back. I was taking a PA speaker down from a stand, packing up for Saturday night's gig. Tripped. My only thought was "save the speaker". Which I did. It never hit the floor. But in making the save I performed a move that only a pro gymnast should ever attempt, a twist like a shot putter winding up, landing on the floor with the speaker on my chest. I felt a distinct ripping sensation in my back while I was going down. In breaking my fall I landed on my left hand, the one with the gimp finger that can't straighten without excruciating pain. Next morning, I couldn't walk. I really didn't know if I'd be able to stand up and play, but I have never cancelled a gig. I have played with the flu. I have played the same week after having surgery. I have played on pain killers that made the room spin. But I've never not shown up for a gig. Fortunately my bandmates helped me move the gear, and I set up close to a wall and was able to lean against it. Not the best posture for blazing solos, but it worked. We've been playing a lot of early gigs over the past year, like 6 to 9. I love getting to bed before midnight. But last night's gig was 9 to 12. The last song, a rocker that I sing, took every ounce of energy I could muster and I was fully drained at the end. Fell into bed around 2:00 AM. Slept poorly. I dreamt I was in hospital after a car accident, woke up and thought "oh no, it wasn't a dream, it's real!" It wasn't, but it felt like it. Today I am shuffling around like I'm 100 years old and nodding off in a stupor from lack of sleep. It'll get better. But how was the gig? I am reminded of the one-liner my Dad used to say: "Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" It was a great gig. Packed house, enthusiastic audience, got as much in tips as the paycheck. The band was firing on all cylinders, tight and punchy. I was reminded of why I keep doing it.

By all accounts, RME has the best drivers. I've never been in a position to afford RME, but I've read technical papers from them and I believe those guys are some serious bit-flippers. Also don't overlook WASAPI. It's what I've used for about the last 4 years after a long, long time with ASIO. Give it a try.

Anybody else automatically do the arithmetic when a celebrity dies, to get at least a little comfort from the fact that they were older than you? That was working for me until this morning when I learned that Lisa Marie Presley has died at age 54.