mettelus

Be sure to look at the manual on that MB. The SATA connectors are actually a mish-mash, and I had the P8Z67 in my 2600K. The 2 Grey ones can reach SATA 3 speeds (6Gbps), but the 4 Blue ones are SATA 2 (3Gbps). Those are described on pages 2-21 and 2-23 respectively. They will still support SSDs (your better option), but you will not be able to get anything close to NVMe speeds even with a connector. It is also preferred to plug the two most-used drives into the Grey SATA connections on that MB (C drive and the most used program/data drive). A quick check on that manual seems setting the two grey ones to SATA 3 will disable 2 of the Blue connectors, but I forget offhand. I am "assuming" that external SATA port is a SATA 2, so again the data speed is going to be limited to 3Gbps and an SSD would be better bang for the buck. I carried a 3TB spinner HDD forward from that machine for backups and use external HDDs for backups as well, mostly because SSDs tend to catastrophically fail when they go down. I have not had that happen (yet) and their longevity has gone up substantially, but it is something to keep in mind for backups.

Thanks for chiming in Alexey. Every time Annabelle posts I can rarely help one iota, but it often sends me on a fact-finding stint regarding accessibility. Most resources I find are older (and reference 8.5 or Reaper), but this is the first I have seen reference to OSARA. Is that a simple add-on installation or are there any other hoops associated with getting it online? I have only used Reaper once years ago, so totally unfamiliar with the nuances of it, but admit that it never falls completely off the radar because of ReaCWP. My concern here is for steps Annabelle should be aware of rather than just sending her down a blind path that you "know is not that easy." (No offense intended toward you in any way here).

Without other details from the OP there is not a lot that can be specifically done, but for finished work you want to be able to open in (any) DAW in the future, they should have broadcast wav file exports done on stems (both with and without FX baked in just to be safe). Offloading the tempo map as a MIDI file is also advised. With both of these done, you can load/import into numerous DAWs without much issue. Some features just disappear on load (like VST3s if you open them before X3), but there were a few features added that make the cwp file unreadable if you go back far enough (like Aux Tracks/Patch Points). Stems/Tempo maps are universal.

I was just telling someone last week that Blender is probably the most powerful free app out there, with DaVinci Resolve running a very close second. For those not familiar with Blender, it is an incredibly capable 3D rendering program BUT it will intimidate the crap out of new people as many things are not intuitive until you actually do them. For new folks, this Blender tutorial series is exceptional (and relatively short), and walks through a lot of the major components of Blender. He has redone this with each major Blender release and touches upon a lot of tips and shortcuts that are most commonly used along the way to making donut(s). If totally new to Blender, I recommend starting with that series and then other tutorials you watch will make more sense because you can understand what they are doing (not a lot of tutorials say/show the shortcut keys being pressed as they bebop around, so they can just confuse you further). Side comment: you will very much want a mouse with a middle mouse button (many mice with scroll wheels have a button if the wheel is pressed)... Blender is one of the few apps that almost relies on the middle mouse button for tasks. Although you can alter the app to set ALT-left click as the "middle mouse button," having a real one is highly preferred.

Nothing like the firsthand perspective to "experience the music." Probably a good thing Divinyls wasn't at the show! His career got a boost when Dirty Dancing came out, and made me take a look at his older material. RIP.

@Michael Vogel posted his entire archive of CAL scripts years ago. I just checked the link in that thread and it is no longer valid, but someone might still have that file available.

I think what the OP is requesting is also a bit more involved. The functionality of the chord track also includes manipulation of chords, inversions, or changing keys entirely (even to the audio material in all tracks under that chord). From my experience with Studio One, it seems that SOP is very much leveraging Melodyne algorithms to impart this functionality, but it has yet to be implemented in Cakewalk. Working with audio material specifically (loops or similar) that is in the wrong key, but "just snaps" to the chord it is dropped under is a bit more involved, so there isn't a work around for this request; it really does need to be implemented.

I find it ironic that you mentioned both of these. Reason being is that early on in my learning, the power went out (which only happened once when I was at USNA, which is a government facility and never should have happened as the backups failed as well) so I was left in nearly total darkness for over an hour (the rooms did not have emergency lighting, only the hallways and stairs did). That single "Act of God" did more to kick start proficiency than I ever would have suspected... suddenly I was blind and could only rely on my ears and proprioception/kinesthesia (sense of body/hand positions and motion) in order to play. I learned more in that hour than in the prior two months combined because of it. Over a decade earlier, my piano teacher had said "stop looking at your hands" and pulled the key cover out over everything but the very tips of the white keys. That power outage made me chuckle immediately and I said to my room mate, "Stop looking at my hands, aye" and kept right on going. Just turning off the lights at night and intentionally playing in the dark can give a massive boost to skills/senses that truly need to be developed rather than relying on one's eyes.

Barre chords on even an electric can be taxing, so upping the tension with an acoustic just adds to the need for hand strength. Lighter gauge will lower tension (and action) a smidge, but if you are not familiar with doing mods, it is definitely preferable to having a luthier modify things like the nut. I sent @Grem down a rabbit hole replacing his fret nut on a kit he got [we still need a final build version of that guy BTW (I think, I might have missed it)], and he experienced something I never saw or even expected... that nut had been glued in with so much glue on three sides that in broke into pieces taking it out. If the play-ability is already an 8 or 7 from your perspective, the hand strength is probably really it. Most people quit guitar because of the time it takes to build callouses/strength, so just keep that in mind as you go... be sure to stretch hand muscles and give yourself rest periods as you work things out.

Another quick comment, since I have seen fret nuts too high on enough occasions to mention this. Another way to deal with string tension is to tune the entire guitar a half step down, then work one fret higher for what you are doing now (that will address tension, but not action). If the nut itself is too tall, you can also put a capo on the first fret and tune that to standard tuning at the first fret (guitar will still be half a step down) which may address both fret action and string tension. Again, you would need to play one fret higher than you do now for the same results. Depending on guitar model, truss rod adjustments may be possible to accommodate fret action for the the string gauge used, but that is more something to mention at this point.

This is sort of subjective, but may have impact as you go up the neck with barre chords because it can throw intonation off (and become significantly harder to fret the barre). You also want to use the side of your index finger rather than face, because it is more bony and will fret the barre better. The basic barre chords are pretty simple. E/Em is the open chord using all 6 strings, and A/Am is the open chord using only the top 5 strings. If you barre where the nut is, you can transpose that up the fret board by shifting the root (where your "cheat F" came from). Power chords just use the bottom three strings from either (same fingering) and get used a lot in music, more specifically because they only contain the root, 5th, and octave (no 3rd), so they have no innate major/minor character and can be placed on top of anything. Back to the first part... if the neck has any bowing, the pressure required to barre a chord may increase a lot as you move up the neck. For Em, you can also wrap your middle finger over your index to get more force. Depending how hard it frets, you can also consider power chord for some things and use a barre chord based on D to do the upper strings as needed. Also, if you are focused specifically on the E barre chord (all 6 strings), you can alternatively tune the guitar to E (or Em even) at the nut to allow you to reinforce your index finger by wrapping your middle finger over it. Em would allow for using the barre more simply (as your ring finger can make it major), but for some songs, guitars have been tuned to E (which makes all the harmonics also in key), just beware to use a lighter string gauge if you do that since you will add more tension to the neck. She Talks to Angels is a good example of a guitar tuned to E (and use of the harmonics for the piece).

Documentation is one of the weaker areas (although the default GUI seems to be bigger for many). Upside is that most editing content is universal between all plugins so you only need to learn them once for the most part. (Massive) downside is that the learning curve for some of that can be rather steep, so it can be more effective to work on (quasi-) finished material that you know well. When in doubt, driving parameters to extremes (high/low) will "typically" reveal what it is doing (in any plugin), but multiparameters are akin to the modulation matrix in a synth, so those really could use an explanation update IMO. The manuals "as is" re-use content between them, so you end up reading the same thing x times if you actually read them versus reference them. As with many things, the "80-20 rule" applies... you only need to learn 20% of most things to do 80% (or more) of your work, so delving into minutiae can become counterproductive from a time perspective. Silly things (for me) like engaging the Limiter and setting oversampling (where available) to 4X every time I insert a plugin is "just habit" since I never found a place to set defaults anywhere else.

MCharacter is the most-used "unique" plugin that I own. It performs best on monophonic, dry material before sending things into a follow up FX chain and is very useful for tweaking the timbre at the source. About the 1:40 mark in the teaser video is a good explanation of what it does. I am still disappointed that what is done with the guitar at the 3:30 mark doesn't have an explanation... that uses multiparameters, which are embedded into most of Melda's plugins... they are quite powerful and what distinguishes Melda plugins from others, but they really need another video series explaining them (the existing series is rather lackluster to watch).

No, VST plugins are installed by whatever installed them in the first place (and registered them in Windows). Installing/updating software should never remove older versions (unless the old version was required to be removed to install an updated version (which is fairly common)). You should never be in a situation of "poof" it is gone.

@57Gregy hit your issue with your question about this the other day. To summarize, MIDI notes are just data (note on/off, note pitch, note duration essentially); there is no audio in MIDI. As long as what you recorded is present in the MIDI track, you need to insert a virtual instrument to accept the output of that MIDI track so that it can play the notes (what your keyboard was doing). Do a quick search on "inserting virtual instruments in Cakewalk" and that will lead you down the proper path.

Microsoft apps, particularly Edge, don't allow the average user to remove them but you can repair them. Type in "apps" in your Windows Search and order them by install date. If you double click the Microsoft installs, there should be a "Repair" option which will check installed files versus the manifest. You could have a bum install file from one of those updates, and that would be quicker than directing you to download things blindly. Check which apps have installed since your last known good baseline. This is also why images are advised. If an update is being forced on you but breaks your machine you can still back out of it. Also Google "DISM Restore Health" that is another method to quickly correct system file errors. This link is a good one.

Also bear in mind that you can add audio FX to the output of a virtual instrument and map the controls on the launchkey mini (via MIDI learn) to control the sustain on the audio FX you choose.

New projects in Cakewalk default to "Custom" on the dropdown in the upper right corner of the left pane of the Track View. Set that dropdown to "All" (exposes all track parameters) and be sure the Input (I with a box around it) on the guitar track you are trying to record is set to that same input that you used on your vocal track. It is probably set to "none" on you. Once that is set, arm the guitar track and adjust the input gain on your Scarlett to get the meter to about -12dB before recording. Only arm the track you want to actively record, and you can use the same mic input for all tracks.

I think it was the from the complementary thread. Quick side note with being new... In addition to always checking routing on gear, also get into the habit of reducing gains/outputs on interconnected gear to zero before making/breaking connections (for what you are doing it is more forgiving, but a good habit nonetheless).

The other important thing to understand is the Smart Tool. Depending on where you click within a clip, the cursor will have different functions/capabilities (and often a different cursor appearance). Until you get a feel for those, it may be easier to zoom in on your Track View a bit so you have more area to "hit" while working. While dragging a clip, holding CTRL will make a copy, holding Shift will lock it on the timeline (to move the clip vertically to another track and preserve timing), and CTRL-Shift will do both (make a copy and keep timing for vertical moves). I tend to be old school and use splits to isolate sections of clips and Bounce to Clip(s) to (re)assemble small clips into a single clip. Definitely spend some time not only watching tutorials, but also working with simple things (make a copy of a project and start messing around in it). The mouse behavior changes a lot depending on where you click, what you are clicking on (the "rectangle selection"), and what keys you are using while doing those actions. Those need to become second nature, or you will cause yourself undue/undo frustration... ironically, Ctrl-Z (undo) will become your friend as you learn as well. Also, always be sure to select the object you want to do something to before taking an action. Cakewalk only relates actions you tell it to do by what you have selected. Select, perform action, verify results.

If you have DimPro in your legacy account, the most recent version I have came from the Cakewalk Command Center. I think that is still active, but not sure, and it had legacy products carried forward during the Splat days. The version I last got from that was "D-ProInstall_1.5.5.16.exe" and was just over 3GB. Have you tried using the Command Center?

I don't work with old MIDI files much but seem to have a truckload of them. I just opened a 27-year-old copy of "Too Much Time On My Hands" with SOP. The first popup says "Do you want to load General MIDI sounds for this file?" Click yes, and half a second later it is loaded with Presence XT (akin to Dimension Pro, but a bit more powerful) on all 16 tracks. No muss, no fuss, and the patches they mapped as "general MIDI" are pretty close right out the chute. Cakewalk has Dimension Pro/Rapture Pro, so there is no reason something similar cannot be done. It is more a matter of mapping GM appropriately to patches. LOL, now I have a file with "27 years ago" on my recent song list in SOP... nice! (that is how I knew how old the file is!)

Meh, I always understood things like 38DD/24 without even needing a calculator.

I have started digging through the Moho forums specifically for things I have been focused on recently (I have backed off scenes and focused on characters), and have been a bit hesitant to blindly mark things as "read" since the whole place isn't that huge and I don't want to miss the golden nuggets strewn along the way. This morning I finally decided to sort them by most replies and the "Sketches" in this OP was a bit of an eye opener for me. Those were done in Moho 12.2, so I need to jack the brakes on and rather than go on "assumption" of what Moho can/cannot do based on the interface, I need to delve into those tools in gory detail to find out what Moho's real limitations are (which seem to be a lot less than I have been assuming). The "Unofficial Papagayo Update" caught me off guard as well. When someone pays a 3rd party to update legacy software and then releases it to the public is almost unheard of. I have actually been using Papagayo to flesh out the phonemes "required" for characters. I didn't even start looking at scripts until last week, and some of the user scripts are just incredibly powerful. More and more I am evaluating new software with the ability to runs macros/scripts as a go/no-go on if I should even consider the application. Software that has no macro/script capability is removing the entire user base from making the application better.

DimPro is an odd installer in that the massive download (3 files) is a zip within a zip and would make my first SSD overheat with all the writes it was making. I ended up extracting the downloads with 7-Zip and assembled them so the install only needed to be run once from that directory structure. A few of the multisamples were also corrupted with certain updated installers, so as I repaired all of that I have kept both the installer files and multisamples I reassembled separate as the "archive." That multisample folder can just be copied to a backup location. As you go through the pain of re-installation, keep that in mind so that it might help any subsequent install in the future.