Jerry Gerber

For those music lovers who don't want to buy full albums, I now have downloads, either high-resolution wave files or mp3, available on my site. Every track from every album I've produced is there. Click here to browse! Critical reviews from music journals and online music magazines are here. And, for those music students and other curious people, scores to nearly all my works are available on each individual CD page at no charge. The link to my CD catalog is here. If you have any question, please ask! Jerry

It was just announced that in my area a midget fortune-teller escaped from prison. Everyone should be on the lookout for a small medium at large. My doctor told me the bad news today--I have been diagnosed with kleptomania. But I'm not worried, as I'm taking something for it..

I added a few more tips that may help to get the most expressive performances for your compositions. (see above post)

Well, I don't know if it would be the best way for you, as everyone works differently with DAWs. I do almost all of my programming in the event list. When I need to insert a program change or a CC change I do it very quickly in the event list. The VSL library uses a horizontal and vertical grid that has up to 12 cells in each grid, each cell controls a set of samples. I also use the controllers view frequently when deleting cc7s or cc11s if I have to re-think those. And finally, all of my actual composing, in contrast to cc editing is done in the notation editor. So, if I have a note that begins with a legato patch, I'll program 1 tick before the note (always put the note 1 tick AFTER all of your patch and cc programming to make sure that the note is affected by those controls!) patch change = 3 (in my case I use actual names that I program in Cakewalk's instrument section) cc11 = 96 (track volume at that point in time (I use cc7 for overall track volume) cc18 = attack time cc19 = release time cc22 = which articulation VSL will call up, for example within the pizz patch there's normal pizz, snap pizz, etc. cc33 = same as cc22 except this control the next row of cells if there is one cc44 = this changes dynamic patches from soft to loud to loud to soft There's a few more I use but not often. And then there's every note's velocity, location relative to the beat and the note's length--very important to get proper "phrase-shaping" so that the notes you want accented really are and also to create strong and weak beats. Finally, the connection between notes is as important as the notes themselves when it comes to phrasing. Selecting the best sample set for the passage is the first issue, once you do that you can fine tune the phrase with the techniques I mentioned. Remember that with MIDI if one note overlaps (is longer than it's default time) into another note of the same pitch, the 2nd note won't sound. In that case, instead of increasing the note length of the first note, extend the release time or choose another sample. I attached a screenshot of the event list so you can see an example of what I am referring to. I hope this helps. Event List Example.docx

Hi Mark, I've long said that MIDI makes a lot possible, but not necessarily easy. MIDI controllers are the key to creating an expressive "performance". I do spend a lot of time with controllers, it's all about detail, detail, detail. Particularly important are note attacks and release, and, of course, choosing the best sample-set for the phrase in the first place. Paying attention to velocities. tempos and strong and weak beats is necessary to create a convincing MIDI performance. The more programming you do, the better it will sound. If something bothers your ear, fix it. Do not gloss over it. Fix and improve every little detail that isn't right. My library-of-choice is the Vienna Symphonic Library Orchestral Cube. It has about 764,000 24-bit samples and I doubt I will ever need or want any other library. It's fantastic. I use it with MIR, which is an incredible spatial convolution reverb that lets me place instruments where I want in the stereo field. There are a lot of libraries available now. It's more about one's skill as a composer/orchestrator/producer than it is what library you use. There are many good libraries now on the market. I haven't found a need to use Cakewalk's articulations as of yet. I've looked at them but cannot see how they'd save me any time based on how fast I work and how well-established my sequencing habits are. But who knows, perhaps in the future I may find a way to make use of them. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this movement. I know I am asking a lot of a person's time, but always hope that the listener finds that their time was well-spent. Jerry

Well Bjorn, you've inspired me to contact NASA, so I did. They generally use more pop-style music in their video productions, but, who knows, maybe they'll be open to the kind of music I write. The images from Webb are stunning, particularly the 1st one of the multitudes of galaxies some 13 billion light-years away. What a mind-blowing universe we live in. It truly boggles the mind.. I'm not going into many studios these days because I was recently diagnosed with kleptomania. I am taking something for it. ? Best, Jerry

Thanks Max!

Thanks for listening and commenting Andy and Bajan.. I recently was interviewed by Colin Clarke of Fanfare Magazine. Here it is for those interested:

Fanfare Classical Music magazine has been doing a series of interviews and reviews of my albums. Here's one of the interviews with Colin Clarke: https://www.jerrygerber.com/fanfareinterviewcolinclarke.htm

Thanks everyone for listening to this new movement. I'm busy composing the 2nd movement, will post when I am ready. Best, Jerry

Hey everyone, I've been taking a break from posting music on forums for a few months to focus on new composition. I recently finished the 1st movement of my 12th symphony. I know, according to legend, I'm supposed to be dead after writing my 9th, but since I'm not dead yet I'm still at work! This movement has a wide dynamic range and starts softly so keep that in mind when adjusting your listening volume. Made with love in Cakewalk! PLAY Jerry

Hey Bristol, You solved it for me! Thanks. I don't use screensets anymore as I prefer workspaces. But the files I was having this issue on had screensets hidden on the Control Bar locked. As soon as I unhid them and unlocked all of them, the Hide Tracks function works again. Best., Jerry

I'm running the newest version of CW and have seen this issue in previous versions. I have a file with 33 MIDI tracks. After composition is complete I insert an audio track and render to the piece to audio. If I am satisfied with the recording, I mute, archive and hide all of the MIDI files so I can focus on post-production issues and wave file enhancements. When I save the file and re-open it, all of the hidden tracks, except the last one (#33) are visible. It doesn't matter whether I use a Workspace or not. CW doesn't remember that the tracks are hidden. It also doesn't matter whether the tracks are muted or archived. I've tried this on two machines, getting the same result. CW doesn't remember hidden tracks anymore. I've also tried this with several different .cwp files and they have the same issue. Might someone know what's causing this? I have all CW folders, including all audio and midi drivers, excluded from my anti-virus software. Thanks, Jerry

Hmm, I wonder what's causing this. I'll contact CW tech support. Thanks for replying..

I'm running the newest version of CW and have seen this issue in previous versions. I have a file with 33 MIDI tracks. After composition is complete I insert an audio track and render to the piece to audio. If I am satisfied with the recording, I mute, archive and hide all of the MIDI files so I can focus on post-production issues and wave file enhancements. When I save the file and re-open it, all of the hidden tracks, except the last one (#33) are visible. It doesn't matter whether I use a Workspace or not. CW doesn't remember that the tracks are hidden. It also doesn't matter whether the tracks are muted or archived. I've tried this on two machines, getting the same result. CW doesn't remember hidden tracks anymore. Thanks, Jerry

Thanks Bitflipper for the successful solution to CW crashing upon closing. I put the 4 MOTU audio and MIDI drivers in /windows/system32/drivers in the exclusion list of Windows Anti-Virus (Defender) and now I cannot get CW to crash. Even if I close it with the file I saved without closing the file, it still won't crash. Wonderful!! Jerry

Is there any particular reason to do that? Yeah, I've excluded all CW folders as well.

Yep! Now I am 99.9% certain that the issue has been resolved by excluding the 4 MOTU drivers in Windows/System32/Drivers from being scanned by Window's Defender. Yay! I wish I had known sooner. I cannot get CW to hang after closing, wonderful! Also, if anyone is having trouble opening the Theme option in Preferences/Themes (it takes a long time), do the same thing; exclude C:\Cakewalk Content (where themes are located) from Windows Defender. This resolves that issue as well. Jerry

Hi Bitflipper, I think you may have solved this for me. I placed all 4 MOTU drivers (Audio, USB, MIDI and, I think a system driver) that reside in Windows/System32/Drivers) into the Windows Defender Anti-Virus Exclusion area (whitelisted), so they are now not being scanned or monitored. So far I haven't been able to get CW to stick in memory. So, I am giving it a few days and I'll let you know for sure, but I think this has resolved the problem! I hope! Best, Jerry

Not really. I am pretty sure the MIDI interface is involved in this because if I shut it off before closing CW, either it hangs windows or it shuts down Cakewalk after I try booting CW from memory. Since I am never sure what it will do if if shut down the MIDI interface first, I just wait a few minutes before closing CW and that does the trick. I'd still like to know what's causing it, but composition is always the #1 priority and I've already spent too much time on this.. Thanks! Jerry

The only solution I have found that always works is to simply wait a few minutes after closing a file to close Cakewalk. When I do this, Cakewalk leaves memory as expected and I can shut down the computer. I am about 80% sure it has to do with the MIDI interface but other than continue to keep drivers updated, as I always do, I don't know what else to try.. Thanks! Jerry

Hey Noynekker, It seems to happen on every project. I have numerous startup templates, not sure if any of those wouldn't have this issue. I'll try what you suggest, opening the default normal template, type in a few midi notes and close CW right away. Thanks, J

Good idea. I'm running CW on an i7 Windows 10 machine with 32 GB RAM, 2 SSD drives and with a MOTU 1248 audio interface and a MOTU MicroLite MIDI interface. The MIDI interface is definitely the culprit because if I turn it off after closing CW it often causes the BSOD and the kernal corruption message. Both the audio and MIDI drivers are fully up-to-date and the latest that MOTU has posted on their website. I also updated the NVIDIA video driver but I don't think that's related to this problem. If I close a CW file and wait 3 or 4 minutes before closing CW, the issue doesn't happen. Thanks, Jerry

Thanks! I hope the Resource Monitor will give me a bit more information as to what's going on. If I wait a few minutes after closing a file before closing CW, I don't have this issue, so something must be slow to leave memory..

When I close CW sometimes it doesn't leave memory. If I turn off my MIDI interface I get the BSOD, a kernel level corruption occurs. I've updated my graphics driver and don't know what is causing this. Any suggestions? If I close a file and wait 5 minutes and then close CW, it works without issue. Thanks, Jerry