Mark Morgon-Shaw

Or just do the sensible thing and use a desktop in the studio

Or get a laptop with a num pad My current laptop has one, and think the few I've had previous have always had them

Indeed . I've been doing this for years without requiring a CAL script. Select your notes in the PRV, then you can move them around with the arrows keys on the NUM PAD as long as you have NUM LOCK on They can be moved in all directions but if you hold CTRL + 8 ( arrow up ) or 2 (arrow down ) the selected notes will jump up or down by an octave. Pretty sure this is standard procedure but I've been using it for so long I sometimes forget which are regular keybindings and which are things I've changed myself. I have asked multiple times for the ability to do this in theTrack View as it's really handy if you just want to transpose a clip without opening the Process-Transpose Dialogue The closest I have come is I've programmed my Stream Deck with a macro so I can highlight the clip, hit a button ( I have one each for octave up and down ) and it very rapidly opens the dialogue, types in the value and confirms it. It takes a second or so but it can do it much more quickly than I can manually. It will do this for midi or audio clips.

A lot of DAW users use Stream Decks which can be set up with macros

I use Akai VIP ( sadly discontinued but it came free with my midi controller ) which brings all your softsynths into one place and you can quickly browse all the presets from multiple synths from one big centralised GUI. The thing it made me notice , is that when you can 't seen the synths own native interface... they all kinda sound pretty much the same.

Interesting. Did any of you guys pick up the new Sound On Sound ? The article Hardware Vs Plugins of a 48 channel mix? The guy mixed a track on his Neve console with a load of outboard Then he set about recreating the same mix as closely as possible by using an analyser of the hardware EQ curves etc. and re-did the whole thing in the box. TL:DR - the mixes sound very similar The big take away for me though is it was easier to get the mix sounding good on the analogue gear. It had a wider sweet spot and was hard to make anythign sound 'bad' per se. The "in the box mix" took more work and required a better understanding of the plugins to get the same result but at the end of the day it was achieveable. I think this also applies to the argument of different EQ plugins. You can probably get them all to sound pretty close to each other if you know the plugin well and can match the curves etc. But it will likely take you longer. So I choose to use different EQ plugins for different things. 1 - Pro Channel EQ - just to lo pass filter and get rid of rumble etc : Because it's there and low CPU 2.- ProQ 3 - This is my day to day EQ : Because it has a great interface and is like a swiss army knife 3.- API 560 - I prefer this for my drum buss : Because it's a graphic EQ and I find it easier to get the sound I want 4 - Maag EQ4 - For mastering : Because it's got a nice air band and the fixed bands work well to subtle sculpting Could I get the same result just using ProQ3 ? Yes probably, but on certain tasks the others are quicker and easier. Also - I see many posts arguing this EQ , or that compressor plugin ( across various audio/music forums ) and often when I go their profiles and take a listen to their music it's often not very well performed or mixed. i.e. They aren't even outperforming the stock plugins never mind fawning over some percieved esoteric difference provided by an expensive plugin.

I like this idea and it makes sense for larger projects - The new Sonar will have a vector based GUI, so hopefully this could introduce more flexibility such as this type of idea. Imagine by default with the track expanded the FX bins are the same as now, but as you collapse them at some point the FX bins change to horizontal format. Many DAW users don't use a console style view so much and like to work with a track view/inspector, so I think this works well for that workflow

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Deprecated-New-CAL-Script-UNOVERLAPCAL-m3781728.aspx

Per Track Undo sounds like a logistical nightmare, how would you remember the undo state of every track/buss and what happens when you need to globally undo something? For phase aligning multi miked drums it's easier to use a plugin such as Waves InPhase as you're adjusting things inside plugin and not editing the track which makes easier to bypass or change after the fact.

I had the same complaint when we moved from Sonar 8.5 to X1 - I don't recall the % change but less track and few mixer channels fitted on the screen.

Yes it's very useful when using Orchestral libraries. I don't see it in the new Sonar though ? Edit : Oh it's in the articulations rather than at track level. Interesting

Interesting. I have 2 identical 24" Dell screens so I've had it side by side and CbB is definitely easier on the eyes. Cripser, more contrast - better demarcation between items. Whether that's just design choices or other more technical reasons I don't know. I just call it as I see it.

From reading through all the posts the people with 4k monitors seem happier than those without. I am very happy to hear about the Classic Themes though.

Can you please do the same for Mercury too.

I think what many are complaining about is that it's harder to use. Less clear, not as sharp , more washed out, less contrast with strange icon / button choices. I understand that under the hood there are big benefits but we still have to use it and it still looks like a visual downgrade from the free product for many users.

A great mix on speakers will usually translate well to headphones A mix that sounds great on headphones can often sound unbalanced when heard on speakers ( but that's not to say you can't learn them ) There are lots of reasons why this is the case, some of them are to do with having a driver so close to our ear drums and the individual shape of our ear canals. This can skew the frequency response but is somewhat negated by using speakers as there is more air in between you and the source, some of it is to do with how frequencies combine from each side before they reach our ears which you don't get unless your headphones/controller has a crosstalk feature. Some of it is to do with how quickly ear fatigue sets in which is as much a psycho-acoustic phenomana as anything. There's no one size fits all solution, some people can't have speakers in the enviromnent they mix in and if a room is poorly treated it may actually be better to take the room of the equation and use cans. Personally I would rather mix on proper studio monitors, but my room is well treated and relatively flat so I know it will translate well but my 2nd reference are a set of Slate VSX headphones which can convincingly emulate a number of different listening environments including various headphone types, earbuds etc My best mixes will sound good across all of these emulations so no matter where it gets played you know it will sound as you intended. This quote from SOS mag sums it best for me. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mixing-on-headphones-pro-perspective

No, still a missing feature - It won't be added to CbB as that's it now. You will have to hope it gets added to Sonar ( or change DAW )

They will because kids now have grown up with Google and Youtube and social media, they can easily find free stuff . Trust me I have 3 kids aged 15 -22 . This stuff comes naturally to them. When I started out the only way you found out stuff was by reading Sound On Sound magazine as there was no internet. There is more funtionality in the Pro-Channel alone than I had in my first studio, plus there are hundreds of free plugins literally. I don't think we need to bloat the installer with even more. Nope. When I started out I had hardware synths and FX units and Cakewalk was just a sequencer which I slaved to my ADAT. Then I got Waves once I got a PC that was fast enough to handle audio plugins, so I never really used anything bundled as it was not very good compared to other stuff I had at the time. Z3ta was pretty good when it came out but other than that I've not really used any bundled stuff.

IDK , I mean if they are free then why not just let people that want want them go downlod them directly. I've got hundreds of plugins both free and paid , I don't really want a bunch of extras - I hardly ever use any of the bundled stuff.

No

Was filling in a survey and surprised to see Cakewalk not even mentioned in the survey list. Surely there must be a huge user base, I can't see a DAW like Bitwig having more users than Cakewalk. Part of me thinks because it's been free for 5yrs it's been marginalised to the extent we are considered also-rans. I hope this changes when the new Sonar is released. My controller keybaord for example has presets for most DAWs except Cakewalk which is annoying.

@RexRed

Crikey ! That is really wide, don't think I could cope with the curve personally ? - Glad you like it though. Are you using the 2 Octave keyboard to activate keyswitches ? I have one sat around that used to be my main keyboard back in teh day but I migrated to 61 keys As I've gradually gotten into Kontakt I was thinking if I could use it for that purpose

I'm all in - Do we get a bounty if we find any bugs ?

Hopefully the new console view will be more flexible with the move to a vector based GUI - In theory you should be able to have it re-size iteslf tto best fit the screen / window. I have 3 but I use them all in landscape. You have made me wonder if I should the two smaller ones on the outise it portait mode like you have them Obviously it's a more natural fit for documents, I'm wondering if there is any benefit with things like Kontakt that I use a lot