Hi, I'm new here and new to Cakewalk.

[Notes_Norton]

Hi. My name is Bob "Notes" Norton and I just downloaded Cakewalk - but I haven't installed it yet. It's a gig day and I don't do involved projects on gig days. I chose "Notes" because in the pre-www days of the Internet, we conversed with the usenet/newsgroups and on the alt.saxophone group there were already two people with my name there. My sister's business partner called me "Notes" so that was easy to distinguish myself from the 'imposters' Call me Notes or Bob, either is fine, but I've had the "Notes" so long, I keep it around.

I'm a professional musician and have been for decades (Sax, flute, wind synth, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, & vocals). I'm currently in a duo, I make my own backing tracks, and I also write aftermarket style "disks" and fake "disks" for Band-in-a-Box and have done so since 1992.

I have played in just about every venue a musician can, from seedy 'dive' bars - to show clubs  - to singles bars - to cruise ships - to yacht & country clubs - to 5 star hotels - to being the opening act in concert for major headliners and more. I was in a band that almost had a record deal, but couldn't get the money thing to work (the label didn't want to pay enough for our management's calculations).

I've done a lot of MIDI sequencing, mostly in Master Tracks Pro but MTPro doesn't work well in Win10 and never will because it's orphaned so I figure I'll have to learn to use Cakewalk. I tried a demo of Cubase (LE) but it kept crashing two of my computers so I gave up on it. I'll install Cakewalk as soon as I get a chance . I live in South Florida and it's a busy gigging season now. I'm still sequencing on an old XP computer and using a flash drive to get the results to a modern computer.

I liked MTPro because it has great editing features and with no audio commands and a pure MIDI environment the work flow was quick. Every editing dialog box was accessible with one click in a drop-down menu with no little arrows for sub menus and sub-sub menus. But those days are gone so I need to evolve with the times.

I've done audio recording in Audacity and PG Music's Power Tracks Pro. I like PTPro OK for the limited audio that I use, but I don't like it's MIDI editing functions. There is no control over groove, I'm hoping there will be in Cakewalk. People in other forums have indicated that there is.

The website of my duo is http://www.s-cats.com and there is nothing to buy there so I don't think it's considered spam.  My Band-in-a-Box website is http://www.nortonmusic.com. I'm just posting these for people who are curious. If this is considered spam, please let me know and I'll delete.

I like many different types of music, from 3 chord blues to symphonies. Genre doesn't make as much difference to me as to whether I like the music or not. I have no idea why I like some things and not others on an emotional level, but just go with it. I've played classical, rock, pop, blues, jazz, salsa, soca, reggae, folk, country, and quite a few other forms on stage, and I find that the more genres I learn, the better I get at the ones I already know.

After I install Cakewalk, I'll probably start by asking a few Cakewalk Newbie questions and I hope the seasoned users are kind and patient with me. If I stay with Cakewalk long enough to get good at it, I'll be happy to return the favor to anyone who hasn't climbed that ladder as high as my then current level. And if any user has questions about things I already know and can help with like wind synthesis, saxophone, basic MIDI sequencing, or whatever, I'll be happy to help.

I'll probably visit this forum sparingly at first and be more of a lurker, as one can learn by lurking, but eventually I hope to make a lot of friends here. I'm sure there are friends from the Band-in-a-Box forum that I already know.

There it is, probably TMI but my new computer types so well I just couldn't stop

Bob "Notes" Norton

 

[Lee D]

Welcome Bob.  Thanks for the intro, always interesting to see what other musicians are up to.  Cakewalk is a great DAW so you made a good choice.  I'd recommend you watch a few videos on Youtube, either for Cakewalk by Bandlab or Sonar Platinum (what is used to be called).   Those should help get you up to speed a little quicker.   Cakewalk in particular has a great community forum when you have questions.

[Bapu]

Hey Bob, sit back and relax and soon enough you'll learn about the Am bass "note".

[Starship Krupa]

First bit of timesaving info: when they start going on about the "PRV," that means Piano Roll View. ?

[John]

Bob I too played the Sax. That is the instrument I learned on and still love.  I think you will have a great time here and don't worry about asking questions. That is why we are here.  Because we like and even love Cakewalk we can answer just about anything.  

Once you get started don't hesitate to call on us to give insights into the workings of this very remarkable DAW. 

Great that you have come here. 

[chris.r]

I too come from early '90s midi software, you should be feeling like at home with cakelab once you get familiar with the basics like routing midi & audio and all the usual first steps. This tutorial is great to start, made by Cactus one of the forum member. Also have a look at the online help for prv and cakelab's signal flow.

[InstrEd]

Welcome aboard

[Eddie]

Welcome Bob.

You're going to fit right in here. ?

[Kurre]

5 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

First bit of timesaving info: when they start going on about the "PRV," that means Piano Roll View. ?

Second bit of timesaving info: "j" on the keyboard gives you ability to hear the sound you move your mouse over.

[John Vere]

My recommendation to anyone using ANY new software is to first explore all the menu's and poke around finding things. I think a common mistake is to jump right in and try to get any work done before you have actually figured out the basic layout.

A huge help with CbB is the HELP module which will show up on your right in the browser window if you select it from the "Views" menu. It's at the bottom of the list. Now when you hover the pointer over anything on the screen it will tell you what it does. 

If you need some simple tutorials on using MIDI see my signature for the link to my website where I have an easy to follow basic guide to midi posted. 

[Skyline_UK]

Hi Bob and welcome!  I remember you from way back in my early days of using BIAB!

John

[reevant]

Hi Bob, you will not take long to get a handle on this.  You have a better understanding of the processes involved in music production than most.  I know this through the various dealings I’ve had with you on the BIAB forums.

 

You’ll enjoy it.

Tony

[Royarn]

Welcome Bob, I'm sure you'll find lots of helpful folk here, I've been around Cakewalk for years like lots of people here, and had plenty of guidance from the old forum and will here I'm sure, hopefully I've also helped some over the years.  Visit anytime even just to enjoy the company. 

Roy

[Notes_Norton]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I know I'm going to like it here.

I'm gigging every day until (and including) Christmas, and if too much family doesn't get in the way after that, I plan to do a disk image of my hard drive and then install Cakewalk before the next gig on New Year's Eve. Then the Cakewalk fun begins.

I probably should have waited until after the tourist season to get started with this, but I got a new computer, put my other music apps on it, and while I was at the Band-in-a-Box forum, I read some nice posts about Cakewalk and decided to go for it.

My uses will be for two main things:

1.  Making backing tracks for my duo. I sequence them in MIDI, entering the parts mostly in real time from start to end. Drums first, then bass, and whatever comp parts I want to add. I always leave out the most fun parts for Leilani and I to play live on the gig (we don't want the machine to have all the fun). I could use Audio but I've been making MIDI tracks for the duo since 1985, before audio was practical, and I like the consistent sound with my earlier tracks. I have a half dozen sound modules and a couple of hardware samplers. I use a MOTU MIDI Express 128 to route the sounds to the best module for each part, combine the synths in an old Samson 12 channel mixer, route to another computer via AUDIO->USB interface, make a WAV file and rip to a 192k mp3.  My work flow and use on stage can be accessed here http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html
2. Making aftermarket styles for Band-in-a-Box. The recording is the same, except it's all done over one chord root (C). Depending on the style, I'll record a long sequence with variations that I plan to import into BiaB. The variations might be for situations like a V7 chord leading to the I for the next A section or the ii of a ii V7 I progression. BiaB takes car of the transposing, and there are handles in the BiaB StyleMaker that will let the specialty patterns appear in musically appropriate situations.

Sometimes I use Band-in-a-Box while making my duo backing tracks as a starting point or for the 'mule work' (background comp parts) if there is an appropriate style. This is entirely song dependent. Some of PGs MIDI styles have quantized drums so I'll be very interested in Cakewalk's ability to turn them into something that has a groove. MTPro has a change filter that works well. I'm not opposed to learning a new way to do this.

I don't do much song writing, everything I've tried I'm not happy with. Most is either too simple or too complicated and definitely not hit material. Oooh and the words, I can't believe how corny I can be ;)

But on the gig, I love to improvise and am a bit of a solo hog. The duo fits me fine for that ;)

I went duo because clubs and private parties were all downsizing and a duo can make more per person around here than a bigger band. I love to play music, but I have to pay my bills too. Leilani and I were in a 5 piece band at the time, and we lost a bass player, then a drummer and was out of work for a couple of months total while breaking in the new. So I bought a 4 track Teac reel to reel and started making backing tracks. Then came a keyboard with a sequencer followed by my first computer (Atari ST) and after trying a couple of sequencers I settled on Master Tracks Pro. I used it on my Mac Classic II and when it came out for Windows 3.1 I switched to Windows.

The duo with the woman who is now my wife is great. We keep all the money, we can travel and go wherever we want, we both have strong work ethics, we collaborate well, and we really have a lot of fun on stage together. When I met her she was playing in another band and we became each others' groupies. My band broke up, hers was about to, and a pianist friend asked if we wanted to do a light jazz and some pop trio. We were in. Jazz doesn't pay around here though. We've been in a few groups up to 5 piece since then, but the duo provides the most stability. We haven't been out of work since our second year as a duo.

We have close to 600 songs mostly for the adult audience (45 to those at the coda of life) and found it to be a good niche for business here in South Florida where there are a lot of  yacht clubs, country clubs, and retirement developments. The list consists of mostly Baby-Boomer pop, with some newer songs that appeal to that audience, some country, reggae, soca, calypso, Latin American, and whatever they ask for if we can cover it.

This is all probably TMI for most, but I'm going to make some new friends here, and I hope to learn more about you all as well.

Notes

 

 

[conklin]

Hello and welcome Notes!

That's a lot of info ?

[Notes_Norton]

20 minutes ago, conklin said:

Hello and welcome Notes!

That's a lot of info ?

I agree. That's probably it as there isn't much more to say.

[John Vere]

Hey Bob when you get up and running and have any questions let me know. We both have a similar background. I started with the old Atari and a rack of modules. And I  play both solo and as a Dou. 

I still have all my old midi files and the good news is you can open those in Cakewalk and if they were GM they will play just like they did in 85!

There's no need for 2 computers as you can just export your mix to a wav ( or MP3) 

Live, I use Stereo wav files played back using Win Amp on a very small Net book. I control Win Amp with a Stealth foot pedal system. I use Win Amp because it's the only player I am aware of that STOPS after each song plays. 

[Noel Borthwick]

On 12/22/2018 at 10:14 AM, Notes_Norton said:

Hi. My name is Bob "Notes" Norton and I just downloaded Cakewalk

Welcome Bob. I think decades ago I bought one of your style packs for BIAB.

[AntManB]

17 hours ago, John Vere said:

Live, I use Stereo wav files played back using Win Amp on a very small Net book. I control Win Amp with a Stealth foot pedal system. I use Win Amp because it's the only player I am aware of that STOPS after each song plays. 

If you want to explore an alternative to Winamp for this, Foobar2000 also lets you stop at the end of each song (in Preferences | Playback check "Stop playback after the current track" and uncheck "Reset the above when stopping").

 

AMB

 

[Fccfirstclass]

Welcome Bob.  Another old timer here, both in using Cakewalk Sonar and age.  I really like the new look of this forum.  I think that you and any new member should have an easy time exploring the layout.  Happy music and Happy Holidays.  ?