Rickddd

@msmcleod thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

Help for a new Sonar user/old bandlab vet. I'm guessing we can't.. but my question is this: in the bandlab version, when I set a track color, it made the entire track reflect some version of that color (e.g, green and light green). I just upgraded to Sonar, and when I try to set track color the same way, it only colorizes the small vertical bar on the far left of the track. The rest of the track track, including the various background button controls, don't change at all, except for the wave forms. Am I doing something wrong? The small vertical bars actually inhibit good eye scanning when they are the only color indication in the new Sonar, for my eyes at least. I hope there is a way to do it. Rick

Thank you @Mark Morgon-Shaw, @John Faughey, @Wookiee! I'm (now) In - much thanks for your strong endorsement of Sonar. I couldn't believe how painless the install process was and how it perfectly brought my plug-ins over without a hitch. As far as the looks are concerned, it could use a little color just to help the eyes navigate quicker. But I do like the cleanliness of it all. THANK YOU !!! Rick

My question is this: Is the new Sonar in its current state more stable than the current Bandlab free version? I use current bandlab cakewalk a lot (and have been a regular Cakewalk user since 2010). You may know what I'm talking about: the occasional out of the blue unpredictable lockup. Yes, I know issues can come from errant VSTs. One relationship I have noticed is the larger and more complex the song project, the more backups I better make. If there is a noticeable improvement in overall stability in the new Sonar, then I'm all in. Opinions from users who have gone from bandlab to Sonar ? Much appreciated! Rick

Have you tried adjusting Ozone mastermizer down a bit? Not sure what version of ozone you have, I have 9, 10, 11. It doesn't take much, particularly for 10 & 11, to go "all loud" far more than I want it. Adjusting the Maximizer a little sometimes makes big changes in the loudness.

1. If you insert blank spacing at the start of the song on all tracks, does the pop stay at the same place or does it slide correspondingly with the moved tracks? 2. I saw where you said you only had a couple of effects. Instead of shutting them off individually, shut them off via the master FX switch. In theory shutting all individually and shutting the FX switch should be the same, but in practice, I've heard small differences. The goal is trying to zero in on the culprit. 3. If I were troubleshooting it I'd start with half the tracks muted. Still get the click? Mute the other half and see. Keep drilling down until isolated, assuming that works! 4. Since it happens when several instruments start, it could be a sound overload at that point. And it need not be big and wide; it might be an instant. Don't know how your interface talks to the system (ASIO, etc), but you might try increasing any buffer sizes. My system uses ASIO and to get minimal latency I will squeeze it down as far as I can get away with but have to back it off if the system overloads. Just some thoughts...

I know, probably years ago, I used to be able to have input-echo= on for a track which would allow me to practice a part (e.g,, guitar) *before* I record. Now, that doesn't work. It works fine if the track is in record mode however. Can you help me please with how to have input-echo work without having to hit record?

I love Cakewalk, and appreciate what bandlab has done over these last years to make it even better. Back in the day, before there was Bandlab, I bought cakewalk. First the basic one, then upgraded to Studio, then upgraded to "Platinum". I forget how much I paid but I believe a full copy of Platinum was selling for something like $600. This was some 10 years ago. I don't expect the bakers to give a copy away, but it would be a nice gesture if there was some consideration for people like myself who invested real dollars into the program for when the new Sonar comes out. Maybe a 10% discount or something like that. Just a thought

This is so cool!

Thank you so much @scook

I vaguely remember years ago cakewalk adding a feature that allowed one to record a midi (e.g, piano) direct to audio wav file, instead of creating a midi file. Is that feature still present?

1. Freezing tracks is a bit of time and work, but it's the only thing that will flatline track demands. I have a pretty high computer, 32 Gig I-9700 running on SSD's, and I have to resort to freezing rather quickly normally. My current song data is also on an SSD. 2. If you use the "Upsample" feature for 64 bit vst's, I keep mine at upsample on render only. Never upsample on playback. 3. Be strategic about how you apply "common elements" like reverb. Having a single reverb bus and using a send (while adjusting how much signal is sent from any calling track) can reduce VST load, and has the advantage of have one unified "voice" instead of many. 4. Definitely, some VST's are much more resource intensive than others. For me, I like to use Waves Abby Road Plates a lot and that drags my system down quickly; so I think long and hard before I use it. Again, freezing can be your friend. 5. I'd much rather freeze a melodyne track then bounce it for obvious reasons. 6. Shutting off all effects ("FX" button") of course will often make a mix sound a lot different, but you can turn on the effects for specific tracks, thereby reducing load. 7. Sometimes, when I have pushed my system to it's limit despite freezing tracks... OR if I want to add additional tracks while having FULL FIDELITY... I will output the song as is, create a new project, and have that file pulled in the new project. I then can add whatever I want in full glorious fidelity, and then have to bring it into the original project. It is a multi-step approach, but it does get around any resource limitations. Hope this helps.

The following scenario has happened quite a bit over the last couple of months for me. I have Melodyne 5 Studio and the latest CwB. I fortunately have found a work around, still this never happened in the past and I am just hoping it resolves itself in the future. So here is teh scenario: 1. I edit a track using melodyne. 2. when I come back to the project, the edits are physically there, but when I play the song no output is heard from that particular track. Zero output. 3. When this happens, if I "freeze" the track, the frozen track shows zero waveform ('tho the edits and wave form are present in the pre-frozen track). Now this has resulted in several "gotcha" moments but fortunately there are two work arounds. 1. Freeze the track before I save the project, or, 2. If I forget and no output is heard, I do this: a. Right mouse click remove melodyne b. Immediately "undo" (for me, CTRL-Z). Doing #2 restores the clips ability to output and preserves the edits. It works, works every time actually, but is annoying. The dead-output melodyne clip in CwB doesn't happen always, but maybe that's because I now freeze the tracks right after editing.... IN am in WIndows 10 pro, 32 GB, my CwB is healthy as a horse so far as I know and this has been happening over at least 2 of 3 updates.

Why physically cut the end of the song off? Why not use automation (depending on how you end your song, e.g, fade), and just export to the shorter length using adjusted markers?

I'm not an expert at all, but your SSD can eat regular hard drives for supper. However.. a 1 TB SSD system drive doesn't leave oodles of space for decent future growth. I bought a second SSD 1 TB and run both my projects and cakewalk off of it. Just say'in.