Rickddd

I used to laugh when I ran my web dev company. You could always tell the ages of the graphic designers. Not by their styles and edgyness or lack thereof. Nope. Rather, by how hard it was for older users to use websites created by the young ones, who haven't experienced yet what happens to eyes as one ages. But they will. Then they will be typing posts like the one I'm typing now.

Dumb dumb... dumb dumb dumb.... me! Thanks!!!!!! Works exactly that way.!!

How do you raise or lower a track's volume curve without changing it horizontally?

Capitalism But seriously, folks... welcome to the joys of subscription. A subscription is like fly paper. Pretty soon you realize you're stuck. You're not gonna give up the DAW, and you're gonna pay the yearly tribute ad-infinitum. The Bandlab overlords (love them as I do....) are on high above the clouds. They know that once you're on the paper, they got ya. Fancy to meet you on the fly paper we're both stuck on.

Me too. I know what you mean.

(I've been using the now old Cakewalk sonar on my 4k 43" monitor for over a year. Eye wise, it was easier to see. Not as sleek as the new sonar, but very usable. Just to clarify - the new Sonar (on my same monitor) *is* sharper than bandlab, and I did not mean to imply that it wasn't. But sharpness *alone* does not determine how easy it is on the eyes to use an interface. Take the hair thin lines on the grid system. There have been a lot of user posts saying the grids just don't stand out well. I don't have any hard data to show this, but just seems to me I have to work harder to work my eyes when examining tracks. Bonus points: make the grids user adjustable. The drop down v's are the next culprit for me. In bandlab we had for a track a reverse text + sign. Because it was reverse text (light background dark lettering) it performed excellently as an anchor for the eye and visually distinguished itself from the other elements. The drop down V in the new sonar functionally works, but I have to work harder. It doesn't stand out well like the old + did. It's not unusable. But could be better. I'm retired now but I spent many years performing user tests on websites. I observed a lot of subtle behavior influences by graphic design and layout. Doen't make me smarter, but does make me opinionated! It's not that I can't use the new sonar, I love many things about it. It's just that the interface is a 90% improvement and a 10% "could be better with just a tiny bit of refinement. That's all I was saying. Rick

There is a feature in preferences called dpi awareness. It is on by default, and improves readability 10-20% if used on a large high def monitor. I definitely see an improvement with it on. BUt maybe it got switched off by accident? It's still not good enough or as easily readable as bandlab cakewalk was however. I hate to show my age but you can always tell when young graphic designers design things they often assume eyes of every age can read them. That appears to me to be the case here. Those faint drop down 'v's are especially annoying. It's called eye strain, children! Since DPI awareness is on by default it may already be the case. In that case, try it with it off. One never knows. And remember, cakewalk must be reloaded after the dpi awareness checkbox is changed.

I don't disagree with your thoughts, at all. Similar to you, it's been a long journey with Cakewalk for me. Like you, the "stuff" they are offering in the membership program has zero attraction for me, except of course for the updated Sonar. I joined membership several weeks ago specifically because as good as the prior program was - it had some deeply long term bugs which were just annoying. I almost dropped membership after I ran into a bug that has been bugging me for years - issues with copy and pasting. Man I was livid. I am since calmed down. I have a respect for the new Cakewalk, it's not a night and day improvement from Bandlab cakewalk but there are enough things to keep me in membership. Clearly, the wet dream for any software creator is a steady, predictable income, one that doesn't require big updates to generate excitement and income. As long as cakewalk the company keeps the faith and doesn't go from creating ongoing program improvements to milk the customers via subscriptions, I guess I'll hang around with them. I didn't know this, but you can install the new Sonar and it will work except for saving. So you can give it a try. However, the improvements in the program are subtle - and won't hop out at ya. They are nuances for the most part. Except visually. Visually, it's harder on the eyes and harder to visually navigate. It's a matter of visual design, not function. You can find countless posts on the board that say "I like the new sonar bla bla bla... but I don't like the look and feel. When one person says that, it's a personal taste thing. When a bunch do, and few if any come out to defend it, it's a visual design problem. No doubt bandlab management needed to visually distinguish the two and that's why we got what we got. It wasn't to make it visually function better, IMHO. Best, Rick

This is probably going to be laughed out by some, but one solution to removing noise *from vocals* is a plug in like ClarityVx from waves. I mean, it does some amazing things cleaning up sounds like mechanical noise (fans, etc). Its about $30 and it works like magic. You might want to look into ClarityVx pro, which allows you apply noise reduction to various areas along the audio spectrum. I don't have the pro model but the $29 version works well. Might be worth looking into. Maybe not a perfect solution, but one that might make some failed recordings usable. There are other sound cleaners out there, I am just familiar with the one. Rick

@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.

Prefs> Customization> display > show start screen (uncheck)