Mark Morgon-Shaw

Thanks - not my kid, it's my Son's & Daughter in Law who live with us. Hopefully be gone in a couple of years if the house prices / interest rates revert to anything sensible

Depends ...... For free - you can't beat Spitfire's BBC SO Discover as mentioned already https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover Also Project Sam who make the Symphobia series do a Kontakt Player ( also free ) instrument called The Free Orchestra https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra Then I would go and grab whatever else you need from Spitfire Labs https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/?sortBy=prod_products_labs_latest&page=5 All of this is no good unless you can orchestrate properly and can make best use of articulations and CC controllers for expression. Otherwise it will just be a nicer sounding robotic performance. Being able to mix and master this stuff is also part of the recipe To learn how to use these libraries better I'd recommend watching something like Cinematic Composing on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@CinematicComposing

I'm a little underwhelmed with VSX which I picked up a few months ago, they are a handy check but I've not worked on them extensively. The only one which gives me the illusion of being in front of a real speaker is the mixcube emulation probbaly because it's mono but I already own a real one so that's of minimal benefit. The reason I got them though is there's a new baby about to arrive into our family who's room will be above my studio for the next couple of years and I need to be able to get on with mixing work without disturbing anyone. I was interested in what headphone amp you used with them that had made such a big difference as I will need to start using them in earnest any day now and would like to squeeze the most performance I can from them. I currently just use the built in Audient ID4 headphone amp and I'm on APS 2020 Klassik's with Sound ID correction as my nearfieds. I've spent more time audition VSX 4 recently as they just released their Systemwide plugin which makes it easier to play a whole bunch of references.

Thanks Sydney, I understand some genres can have long solos ( including folk ) I guess for now you could make your sections that go under the solo longer, i.e. 2x 12 bars instead of 6 x 4 bars then they would fit on the screen

It's a fine idea but the issue with that idea is that Cakewalk/Sonar is at it's heart is based on a traditional studio paradigm with a linear timeline running left to right and playing it as one would a hardware tape machine. It doesn't run from a playlist like some other DAWs do and it would be pretty seismic shift to move to that world at this stage. I would also argue that in a typical song most folks wouldn't want the exact same section played 12x over as it could get boring. But eventually you're going to want to commit to new arrangement and write it back to the linear track view in any case. Maybe there is a better solution like a floating arranger page so you can make more eloborate arrangements full screen, which would also make it fully visible and avoid it scrolling off the screen. Or maybe they are willing to change the whole ethos of how we play tracks and make it a more non-linear DAW.

You can , it's under the options menu in the track view

It just adds a needless layer of complexity. You can already choose at track level whether it's a custom colour or follows the bus. Anything further is superflous. You basically have 3 choices : Default/No colour, Track Colour, Follow Bus Colour : If your workflow is such that you want to use a custom colour up to a certain point and then have it follow the bus colour all you need to do is add the tracks to a Quick Group and choose Follow Bus and they will all instantly switch to the new colour.

Me too

Wouldn't we all. I've been asking for a sampler for about 15yrs but....workarounds

Put the tracks into Folders and then name the Folders the same as your buss

I mixed a ton of music on the original A7's that's on TV.....they translate well ( in a well treated room ) except for the real low end/sub. For that I had to rely plugins to see what was going on down there and adjust by eye.

I thnk this would be a good idea, pops and crackles can occur otherwise

No worries, you've had a lot of advice here. Some good, some great - plus the odd thing I don't really agree with ?. But I've made the journey from bedroom studio dabbler to writing for TV where it's expected that you mix and master your own tracks. These are a few things I've learned on that journey. 1. You can deliver decent mixes on any playback system if you get used to how it sounds 2. Get decent stands for your speakers - they will sound at their best this way 3. Proper room treatment helps a lot and needn't cost a fortune - You can mix without it it but it will take you longer 4. Plugins to even out the room sound like Sonarworks Sound ID are also a great help includindg the headphone version 5. Subs in a small room are a nightmare 6. If the arrangement sucks so will the mix 7. Being able to instantly switch between several different playback types is massively helpful i.e. Nearfields - Mono Auratone/Mixcube - Old Boombox / Computer Speakers 8. Taking a break is important to reset your ears every hour or so 9. A/B referencing against commercial mixes is the best free training and more easily accomplished with a dedicated plugin like Metric AB 10. It's easy to be tricked that something sounds better when it's louder 11. You don't need to tweak every single track in your mix - " Do no harm " is sometimes the best way 12. Topdown mixing is a good method to learn mix fast and effectively 13. L-C-R Panning is also a good technique that will make mixing simpler and faster and forces you into good arrangements 14. You can learn almost anything on Youtube 15. But the best way to learn is just do a lot of mixing i.e. My 600th TV mix recently was a lot better than my 1st from 6yrs ago

It's a huge subject and thre's a lifetime of learning to be had. The main goal is to have your mixes translate well to other playback systems . I would say making your mixes translate well is a more difficult skill with headphones than speakers but people do manage it . I always reccommend " Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio " by Mike Senior, it's a great step by guide to mixing that really helped me out when I needed to up my game.

No they both lock themselves automatically. If it's gets stoen it's not my car anyway.

No I'm one of those atheist , non TV watching rationalists

They're on the dark web in various data breaches, just name your price. It's not naivete I am fully knowledgable I just don't subscribe to fear mongering.

No. I'm blasé. For the record I just helped my employer get ISO 27001 certified, I am fully up to date on cyber security I just don't care - as an individual it doesn't affect me. Have at it.

Sure what's your email address

I don't care who knows what about me , they can have all the data they want - makes no difference. Never understood why people get hung up on it.

That's a huge topic. I don't think you could do it justice in the notes section.

I have both on my machine, I use Reaper to check if I ever have any issue with a VSTi or plugin - Just to rule out Cakwalk. Never had a problem running both on the same machine, don't believe Reaper installer changes any settings that might affect CBB.

Good Tips ! Thanks

When opening the FX in any FX bin I think it would be really handy if for multiple plugins instead of having to click each one to open it , that all the plugins in that FX bin live in their own tabbed window to make it easy to flick between them and make adjustments.

The load shouldn't make any difference. It isn't a measurement of how much load the machine can deal with before it craps out. It's basically letting you know if any drivers are causing issues to your audio processing. If they are, then dealing with them will improve the audio performance I don't find any big difference between CBB & Reaper's audio performance at the same latency. So if you experience that scenario, it's likely something local.