noynekker

@David Baay . . . yes !, you are absolutely correct, what I am hearing is a volume increase on the hihat channel, and it sounds like it got brighter, but it's just louder than other kit pieces when frozen. So yeah, I tested this by turning the mono interleave to stereo, and it's true, the volume does not increase when freezing with the interleave set to stereo ! 3db is a lot when you're trying to fine tune a mix, and it kind of makes the interleave button useless when using a VSTi ? I never noticed this before, because I don't usually freeze the drum VSTi in my projects, but had to on this one. Thank you so much David for bringing this to my attention.

@Amberwolf yes, thank you, and understood . . . complete cancellation does not occur because I have the Console Emulator on this channel, which does have a random harmonic distortion I think.

@Amberwolf thanks for your reply, an interesting trick you've suggested . . . I tried cloning the unfrozen piano part (has no effects) . . . and flipping the phase does result in total cancellation. Different result when cloning the unfrozen drum tracks, which do have some FX bin, and ProChannel efx . . . there is some cancellation when you flip the phase switch, though, you can still hear some signal, but it is much quieter. (Turning off the EFX and ProChannel makes no difference) Not sure what that means, is there some extra signal leaking through somewhere ? . . . I only have the one Master Bus, and it plugs directly into my MOTU M2 audio interface.

Was working on some drum tracks, and noticed when I froze the drum tracks, they sounded way crispier on playback after freezing . . . crispier especially noticeable in the hihat track, which needed to be turned way down because of way more high frequencies. But, overall the sound changed after freezing, monitoring at same levels on headphones. I was wondering if this is an illusion in the change of latency, since the playback has turned the instrument track off, and converted to audio, playing back more on the beat . . . or could it even be plugin up sampling kicking in ? (I have it at the default setting 2x - 88.2 kHz) I would have thought freezing should not change the tonal balance, and should capture the sound of the VSTi without alteration ? Anybody noticed this, or is there another setting that affects the tonal balance when freezing tracks ?

Not too sure about that . . . your link goes to the Legacy Cakewalk site. I think VX-64 Vocal Strip can only be downloaded from the older Cakewalk Command center I would be surprised if any new users who just install the new Cakewalk Sonar would be able to get this from the new Cakewalk Product center ? Those "new features" aren't really new now . . . it's only been revived because you have revived the old link.

@Bass Guitar . . . thanks for the great tip ! (Strangely enough, when I launched my Cakewalk Command Center . . . it kept saying I have no internet connection . . . yet here I am online talking to the forum) I just updated to version 1.1.8.1 as you suggested, now it works. I can see PH-64 Percussion Strip was a part of the Boutique FX Suite under Sonar Platinum

LOL . . . long may you live, well past when VST2 expires ! I guess I just wonder where the installs for these will come from on a new computer system . . . would we install from the old Cakewalk Command Center, which must be floating somewhere past Pluto by now ?

Long time Cakewalk user, and of course I have a lot of Cakewalk nuggets from back in the day installed. Now, when I finally have to upgrade to a newer computer, I'm hoping I won't lose them. In particular, tonight I was playing around with the PH-64 Percussion Strip to fine tune a Kick Drum sound . . . it's actually quite brilliant, with the range of controls and options this thing has, but alas, it is VST2. I'm guessing these came with Sonar Platinum ? (there was also a Tube leveler, and a Vocal Strip from around that same era) Can we even future proof this ? Will it still be available on a brand new Cakewalk install . . . or will it be lost in the old plugin time warp ? Anyways, would love to see a VST3 revival of these, but wonder if they were a 3rd party add on, that cannot be licensed by Cakewalk / BandLab, or if they were developed by Cakewalk. Haven't heard anyone mention them in a very long time.

Hi Mark, no "riff raff" here . . . another masterfully conceived groove ! It's mostly about the guitars in your mix. as it should be . . . but show the bass player some love . . . oh, wait, that may be you too ? That's just my way of saying, my personal preference is to hear more bottom of the bass guitar . . . even though it's more an upper funk bass, instead of a low driving rock / country bass. It's also possible, I'm just wanting to hear more lows in the kick drum ? I realize it's a delicate balance, and you don't want to mud up those great guitars, perhaps that's why you mixed it this way. 2 cents from Bruce

@subvibe . . . good one, with catchy pop chorus . . . such great arrangement skills you have . . . enjoyed this !

@steve@baselines.com . . . what a great upbeat track and fun listen ! . . . like a Beatle track turning into a marching band (in my dreams)

@Bajan Blue . . . amazing and energetic, really enjoyed this Nigel . . . that rhodes type sound is such a great repeating groove worm, and the drums build in energy as the song goes along. Very creative with the lyrics / vocals echoing back and forth in the chorus . . . also, your video really enhances the experience big time. Super piece ! Bruce

Oddly, it's not that unimaginative at all . . . this new fixed PC of yours seems to have some very cool thingies . . . . . . especially the "Hit skins and Purple coloured metal wet suit" . . . did you get those at Plugin Boutique ? Seriously though, I did enjoy my listen ! (this one could also use some vocals, and a video ):

@treesha @Bajan Blue @bjornpdx @steve@baselines.com @mark skinner Thanks to all of you for listening and making some great comments, much appreciated on my song journey, I assure you !

Wookiee, hope you are well ! . . . you fluctuate between jazz and rock in a very interesting way in this one, it's enjoyable to listen to, and well mixed . . . though, the opening description you offer is questionable: "Oddly Unimaginative Two Noise makers used A keys thing Another keys thing Yet Another Key thing Hit skins and metal whatsit . . ." Well, perhaps you may need to take a marketing course or something ?

Hi Mark . . . this is a great listen ! Lots of amazing playing on your different instruments . . . weaponized nicely (: Now, I don't know the song at all . . . but a great song you've chosen to cover here . . . only thing I wonder about mix wise is the Ibanez bass you mention, I don't really here it very much filling in the bottom, you've mixed that very subtle. Sounds like you may replace it with an upright bass anyways ?, but thought I would mention the lack of low end I was "expecting" to hear. Great stuff as always !

Hi Folks . . . something new, where I attempt to tell a story, this one inspired by a fellow at my workplace, who migrated here with his family from Ukraine, a few years ago . . .

Not familiar with Naked Head Clubs, more up on the Fuzzy Grey Club . . . but agreed, the install should create that directory . . . so, the question would be why it didn't after running the plugin install at least twice on my computer ? Maybe everyone else here has newer computers.

No, that directory did not exist for me . . . perhaps I'm guilty of having every version of Sonar installed since Sonar 8 living on my 14 year old computer.

@Noel Borthwick . . . Hi Noel . . . I am running Sonar with BandLab membership. Here's what I did: Opened Sonar, noticed the update, installed it . . . went to Cakewalk Product Center, it made me run an update . . . installed the new plugins . . . did a sandbox VST scan . . . the new plugs did not show up in Cakewalk Plugin-manager . . . the directory in your install instructions (C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Cakewalk\Core\) does not exist on my computer, and is therefore not in my VST scan path . . . created that folder . . . added it to my VST scan path . . . went to my downloads folder and ran the latest Sonar update installer again, after that, noticed the new plugins needed to be installed again from Cakewalk Product Center, installed again, did another sandbox VST scan, still no plugins in Cakewalk Plugin-manager . . . noticed your instruction said you needed to login to your BandLab account from within Sonar . . . tried that, still no joy . . . . did a complete VST scan (this took the longest), restarted the computer, opened Sonar, and they finally appeared, and are installed to the directory C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Cakewalk\Core\ If you can do this "addon takes seconds" in seconds . . . my hat is off to you:)

Great update to those old and still useful DX plugs ! Much appreciation bakers !! I found the install of these very unfriendly, tried to follow all the steps, and read the criterion . . . but should it take 45 minutes to get them working ? Once working (I haven't spent any time actually using them yet) . . . I immediately noticed only a few of these new VST3 plugins are resizable by dragging out from the bottom corners ? The compressor and gate ones do this, but not the rest of them . . . just wondering if there is a reason why not ?

Yikes . . . Sonar X3 was over 10 years ago, and I'm guessing you didn't have the Auto Save feature enabled . . . when you say all the hits are still there, are you saying the midi track (hits) are still there ? Is this inserted as an instrument track ? . . . maybe you could split the track back to audio + midi, and see if anything is there . . . but if you deleted the midi, it may well be gone.

One of my favourite synth plugins Omnisphere is a VST2 . . . Omnisphere 2 which is VST3 costs $500 . . . that's a big reason for me.

This is something that has disrupted my work flow in Cakewalk for many many years, to the point where I had to create a keyboard shortcut to escape this. (I think I recall other threads suggesting we need a way to turn this off, but they never got much traction) THE ISSUE: You click on the time ruler, perhaps you want to go to a certain point and playback from there . . . or, it's handy to go to the time ruler and drag the mouse to zoom the project out horizontally . . . maybe you want to drag a section and loop playback to work on a certain section. Afterall, the time ruler is less than 1/4" high on my screen . . . so, if you miss the mark by 1/8" and click near the top of the time ruler, it automatically selects a whole section (on all tracks . . . between the markers) . . . this is something I hardly ever want to do, and find it annoying to always have to escape or cancel all the time when editing. Good god, it's 2025, isn't there a way to turn off the top part of the time ruler selection ? If there is a way, please let me know . . . if there is no way to turn it off . . . just move me to "feature requests"

Bye the way, love what you've done with Track manager, quite the nice facelift . . . great work !