norfolkmastering

Thanks for the heads up on the new option to 'Keep Plug-in Windows on top'. I didn't know about it and it works just great.

Thanks for the info and advice. Yes you are correct. The VST panels are still there but hidden behind the full screen console view. I found that the D shortcut also works on my RH screen to flip between my console view and any VSTs I have open. I'll try it that for a while.

Thanks I'll do that and try again.

I tried turning off the fast bounce function. The freeze synth started and never stopped! It went on well beyond the end of the song and I had to stop the function. Also just had a problem trying to freeze Session Drummer which I've done successfully before. With fast bounce on, it does the freeze and I get no audio. Not sure what else to try.

I usually have my VST plugin control screens sited on my right hand monitor on top of the console view, leaving the waveform view on my left hand monitor unobstructed. I click the little 'pin plug window' buttons on the top right of the plugins but I've found the plugin control screens keep disappearing when I click anywhere else on the right hand screen. Is there any way to stop this happening?

Yes the track exports audio correctly when I do an audio export of the whole song. I'll try turning off the fast bounce function as you suggest and let you know how that goes.

I often use freeze synth to reduce the load on Sonar when I have a busy mix. It usually works fine. Today I used freeze synth on an organ soft instrument and got only silence instead of the normally displayed audio waveform. Anyone know what might cause this and a fix?

I find myself using fader automation more and more in fairly busy mixes throughout the song. This means that if I want to bring the 'average' level of a track up or down in the mix, I usually do that using the input gain knob. It's got to the point where I start the mix with all faders at '0' and then do the rough mix using the Input Gain controls. I know I should probably be using the Offset mode to do this but I don't like the fact that there is limited visual information about what the offset level is. As far as know you get a change of colour of the fader setting (to orange) and if you hover on the fader knob, you get the offset amount. Is there a practical reason, when you apply offset to a fader, that you can't get the fader to show the net affect of the fader automation plus the offset? This would seem more intuitive for me. I'd be really interested in what others do re automation and offset.

Thanks Jonathan.

There used to be an option in the Console view to set the maximum number of visible sends. I can't find it anymore! Can anyone help with this please.

Good advice thank you.

Currently I have three versions of Cakewalk DAW installed on my PC: SONAR Platinum Cakewalk by Bandlab Latest Sonar Can someone tell me which of these versions I can remove without losing any VST plug-ins? Thanks

After checking the drivers and firmware were up to date, I did a factory reset of the unit and changed to one of the 'core' USB sockets which wasn't part of a plug-in USB card, in the PC. So far it's working fine again.

I was recording some piano today using Sonar and a single USB connected MOTU interface set to internal sync source. On playback I heard what could only be described as momentary speed variations, just like tape machine wow. I loaded up a test tone into Sonar and played it. Sure enough, I'm getting occasional random 'wow' so little speed variations almost as if the master clock in the MOTU is varying. Sonar clock is set to Source Audio as I always use. This is the first time I've ever come across this and I'm at a loss as to what to do.

Thanks for the explanation Mark, it's really useful to better understand this stuff. I don't want to have to use two hardware profiles but my larger hardware system (which I use when working in hybrid analogue/digital mode) uses six MOTU ultralites plus two hardware controllers, which is pretty well on the edge of what Windows/Firewire/Sonar copes with. It's a bit clunky! So for composing I use a single MOTU unit which is not practical to power at the same time as the full set up (I tried, but seven Firewire connected devices was too much for Windows to cope with). So I connect the single MOTU by USB and then only power up the MOTU units I am going to use. The work-a-round, once the desired hardware set up is powered up, is to reboot Windows before firing up Sonar. This seems to bring the Sonar boot-up time back down to normal (using the appropriate custom hardware profile). This ties in with your comments about Windows remembering the previous set up. My intention is to move to three MOTU 16As but I can't find a MIDI router to replace the MIDI ports I currently get from the ultralites. I've tried two MIDI routers but they all seem to struggle to work in multi-client mode (which I need). The ultralites do work okay in MIDI multi-client mode due to the Firewire interface. Once the new Windows 11 MIDI Services release is made public (sometime in 2025) I should have a way forward with the MIDI router issue. It promises (fingers crossed!) to offer multi-client support for any current MIDI router with Windows Class Compliant drivers. It is also going to offer what I currently have to use MIDI-OX and loopMIDI for (MIDI routing and virtual MIDI ports). I'm going to test all of that as soon as the public release is available.