Jerry Gerber

You're confusing the laws of the physical world with the inner laws of consciousness that govern human evolution on a mental, spiritual and emotional level. You're right in your example that as so long as we are on earth we are subject to accidents and the actions of others that we have no control over. But that is not the level that I am discussing. I am talking about inner development--the psychological, moral, intellectual and spiritual levels of life that not only do we have some control over, but it's what allows humans to transcend, at least partly, the physical and material aspects of life. For example, take attitude. Have you ever noticed that what happens to us is of less consequence than what we learn from it, and how that experience shapes future decisions and future attitudes? If a man or woman lives totally, in their mind, in the physical world, then they of course have no free will at all--everything they do or say is governed by genes, hormones, impulses, social regulations and mores, other people's approval or disapproval. The source of all real science, art, philosophy, and religion is the part of us that is governed by higher functions such as creativity, the capacity to love and be loved, to care for others, to sacrifice one's ego and selfishness for something bigger than the self. I don't think you actually believe that you personally have no free will, when in fact you do have some free will (whether you take responsibility for it is another matter). Perhaps you're stuck in attitudes that you know don't work very well for you but you won't let them go because you are afraid. I've never met you so I really cannot say. I hope one day you actually do realize you have some say in life and that you exercise your free will. Otherwise you might as well have been born a bear or a leopard or a salamander. You're human, so get used to the fact that there are unresolvable contradictions and paradoxes in every human being. Light and darkness, to varying degrees exists in everyone. Maturity is about integrating and coming to conscious terms with what and who you are. Good luck!

Yes, of course we have free will. But more accurately, we actually have limited free will. Within certain laws and constraints I can make decisions and choices and carry out those decisions and choices in action. There is no predetermined destiny, your destiny is in your own hands, you make or destroy your life through your choices, decisions and values. But many think they are using their "free will", when actually they are not. In many people free will is more potential than actualized. For example, a person addicted to cigarettes might believe he or she is "choosing" to reach for a cigarette. But this so-called choice is so strongly influenced by habit, the addictive properties of nicotine, anxiety and other emotions, often unconscious, so that what we might think is free will is actually compulsion, a kind of inner psychological slavery. In order to really exercise free will one also needs "free won't"--in other words discipline, self-restraint and self-control. To develop real will takes a lot of work on the the self. It take takes emotional clarity, ever-increasing sincerity with one's self, good habits, including diet, exercise and mental habits. It also takes integrity, choosing not to violate your deepest values and working to overcome the all-too-human propensities toward secrecy, hypocrisy and insincerity. Then the possibility of real will becomes available. There is no teacher like your own life experience. If you really humble yourself and devote yourself to learning truth through your own experience, you will discover more of what is called free-will, and it may produce subtle, positive changes in your personality. In other words you become a better version of who you are as a unique person. Jerry

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking too. There's a very specific condition that causes the program to get stuck in memory, and about 85% of the time it doesn't get stuck. If I can find what that condition is, I can find the workaround.. Thanks, Jerry

That's correct. Calling up the right-click context menu for editing in the notation editor in Sonar is a one-step affair. In Cakewalk Bandlab, one has to either click CTRL and right-click first, or, even slower, change tools. This might sound like a small thing, but over time these extra clicks really add up, particularly when writing symphonic music with 40 MIDI tracks, dense counterpoint and huge amounts of midi programming. I am still wondering why and how Bandlab is giving Cakewalk away for free. To my mind, after using Digital Performer for a year and a half, and experimenting with Cubase, Reaper and Pro Tools, Sonar Platinum, and now Cakewalk by Bandlab is the best DAW ever produced. It's the most beautiful ergonomically, it makes so many operations simplified so I can focus on music composition and, after using DPs notation editor, I realize that Sonar's notation is actually better in several ways (even DP's editor doesn't display either dotted or tied triplets correctly, I forgot which). But I am still wondering how a $500 DAW is being given away for free. Bandlab must have a business model that I don't know about! Thanks, Jerry www.jerrygerber.com

No, have never used it. Most of the sounds in Omnisphere are are too orchestrated and thick for my purposes, they don't give me a lot of sonic room to work with, at least that was my impression..

I have no idea what "the wrench", "river of plasma" or "oozing about the spire" are. Are they bands?

This piece appears on this album Enjoy! Play

Sure, when Bandlab repairs the notation editor so that right-clicking calls up the context menu, without having to press CTRL, I'll download it and use it. Until then, the little time I lose when Sonar OCCASIONALLY requires a reboot is substantially less than the time having to relearn and use an extra keystroke to do what now takes just a right-click of the mouse.

Are you entering notes in the staff view or the PRV? If you are entering in the staff view make sure the staff is not too small, that can make it more difficult to get a note placed accurately. I've never used PRV so can't help there.. Jerry

Yeah, everything is up to date and nothing non essential in startup. One thing I notice is that most of the time, Sonar closes properly. When it doesn't, I'm suspecting it has to do with certain window and/or screensets being open at the time I close the program.

This is puzzling, Here's what I have tried when, on occasion, Sonar gets stuck in memory: 1. Use the Task Manager to end the task, including on the details tab. 2. Ending the tasks for the audio drivers (in my case MOTU). 3. Opening Windows PowerShell and using taskkill /IM SONARPLT.exe /f to kill the task. 4. Turning off the audio interface (MOTU 1248). 5. Signing out of Windows and signing back in (curiously, this removes Sonar from the task manager list but does not resolve the problem of shutting down the computer What happens is when I try and restart or shut down the computer, it simply doesn't shut down or restart. The only solution is to do a hard reset on the actual computer case, a soft reset on Windows 10 won't shut it down or restart it. Once I do a hard reset the OS boots normally, Sonar is no longer in memory and I can work again. Any other ideas that might resolve this? Thank you and much appreciated! Jerry

Thanks, I'll try that if it happens again. Reinstalling Sonar seems to have done the trick, but we'll see...

Yeah, I've tried that (shutting it down from the Details Tab of the Task Manager.) That's where I get the message "access denied". I did reinstall Sonar and that seems to have fixed the issue.

Hi msmcleod, Native Instruments Kontakt is the only plugin that's being used in the current piece I'm working on and its' definitely 64-bit. I try to avoid all 32- bit plugins, I don't even have any installed... The Task Manager is reporting that Sonar is the program that is stuck in memory, I don't see any reference to Kontakt or any other plugins in the Task Manager, but maybe that's normal... Thanks, Jerry

Every once in a while Sonar gets stuck in memory and using the task manager to end the task doesn't work. I tried opening the command prompt and typing: taskkill /IM Sonarplt.exe /f /t But I get the message that this program is not in memory (even though it is). When I go to task manager-details, it shows that Sonar is still in memory and when I click on it to end task, I get a message saying "access denied". When I try shutting down the computer it won't shut down until I do a hard reset. Then, everything is OK. Anybody know what's going on and how I can fix this? Thanks! Jerry

Thanks people for the comments, glad you liked the composition and the virtual orchestration! Jerry

Thanks Skook! Jerry

Hi Canopus, I did that, I have the theme editor opened, I went to Control Bar-Modules-tools and I see both the tools as they are and the original tools, but what do I do next? How do I substitute the originals for the newer ones? Do I copy and paste? Drag them? I cannot seem to do either... Thank you! Jerry

Hi, On one of the themes I use, I'd like to change the Tools Icons back to the original ones, specifically the Smart Tool to the star icon and the Select tool to the arrow icon. I know a little about the theme editor but not sure how to do this. Can someone explain how I can revert back to the original icons? Thanks! Jerry

Never mind, I figured it out. Jerry

Produced in Sonar with the Vienna Symphonic Library. Listen Jerry

Scored for medium-large virtual orchestra, slow, dramatic, dreamy Listen Jerry

Thanks people for listening, glad you enjoyed the piece... SoundBytes magazine did an interview/masterclass with me a couple of months ago. Here it is, lots of tips for getting better results from your virtual orchestrations: Read

I remember before the last version of Platinum there was a problem with right-clicking undoing the selection, which Cakewalk fixed in subsequent versions. Now, it's broken again. As I said, new version = new features + new bugs. It would be hard to believe that having to press CTRL in order to right click was intentional. Until I find a bug in the last version of Platinum that affects the way I work, why "upgrade"? Why fix what isn't broken? Each person uses a DAW a bit differently than others, so for example I wouldn't notice bugs in the PRV because I've never used it in the 30+ years I've been working in a DAW. The person who doesn't use the notation editor would never notice bugs in that part of the program. I suppose we all have to pick the imperfections we must live with, as nothing humans do, make or are is perfect...

Well fellows, I tried the latest version of Cakewalk. Unfortunately, they degraded the notation editor. It's now a 2 step process to select a group of notes and perform an operation. In Sonar Platinum, you select a group of notes, right-click and perform velocity, transposition, note length, etc. Easy. In the newest version, you have to select a group of notes with one tool and then change tools in order to right-click and perform an operation on those notes. that alone is a deal breaker for me since I spend a lot of time using the notation editor. Unless someone can show me a way to do that in one step, I have no reason to upgrade. I just finished a new piece in Sonar Platinum using MIDI, audio and softsynths. If there are any bugs (which of course there are) they had no impact on my workflow. For me good enough is good enough. My experience with DAW software has been quite consistent over the past 30 years: A new version adds features, fixes bugs, and creates new bugs. I've never seen it otherwise. I'll stick to Platinum as long as I can. If Bandlab has the time, energy and resources to improve the notation editor, they know how to reach me. I'd be happy to share my experience. I am curious though how Bandlab can continue to invest time and energy into new upgrades and still give away such a sophisticated DAW for free. Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic, Reaper and DP all cost hundreds of dollars. How is Bandlab doing this? Jerry