New Demo Projects to Demonstrate Arranger Track

[Starship Krupa]

It's been over 2 years now since BandLab picked up SONAR and dusted it off and returned it to life as Cakewalk.

Along the way it acquired a lot of long-requested what I call "convenience" features, things that aren't that flashy, but that greatly improve ease-of-use of the program on a daily basis. I'd put things like the Ripple Edit Button, Smart Tool configurability, note value display in Piano Roll and Staff View, Channel Strip colors, etc. in that category.

Recently, though, we saw the introduction of a major new feature, the Arranger Track. Quite powerful feature with many possible uses.

One issue I've run into, and it's a luxury problem to be sure, is that I've never used a DAW with one.

My suggestion: Cakewalk has never updated the demo projects it ships with. Considering the ephemeral nature of popular music, 2 1/2 years is a long time. I'm pushing 60 and I'm not even into exactly the same kind of music I was when I first started using CbB. I've shifted more in the direction of EDM production styles,  less so the traditional rock band format.

So how about we get at least one new demo project, one that utilizes the Arranger Track? I don't know how this was done in the past, if Cakewalk, Inc. put out a call for submissions with the winners getting compensation and exposure, but, however, it can be done again.

I would like to use the Arranger Track to the fullest extent of its capability, but frankly, I've never had a DAW that had one before and I'm not sure what all I can do with it. Demo projects are good for things like that.

[User 905133]

10 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I would like to use the Arranger Track to the fullest extent of its capability, but frankly, I've never had a DAW that had one before and I'm not sure what all I can do with it. Demo projects are good for things like that.

I face a similar situation--I really want to learn to use the Arranger Track, but I have never used software that had anything like it.  When the Arranger Track was first introduced in Cakewalk, I was hoping someone (staff or users) would do a series of text-based progressive exercises to try to give users like me a series of small, step-by-step "Instant Gratification" style tutorials--to get me started and to introduce me to the essential/important features.  Different users have different learning styles, but for me there is nothing like hands-on-learning (aka learning-by-doing, not learning-by-watching-someone-else-do-it).

For sure, demo projects to showcase advanced uses can be helpful, too!  Thanks for raising the subject.  

Edited July 10, 2020 by User 905133
fixed typos

[Roland-Music]

Funny - to learn how to use the Arranger Track - there a many video tutorials online, which you can simple recreate.  To get a demo Project that fit your workflow is rare.

I use the Arranger Track as Display for Chord Track, because CbB has NO CHORD TRACK - that is IMHO a more important Feature Request for large Sessions.... ?

[User 905133]

2 hours ago, Roland-Music said:

I use the Arranger Track as Display for Chord Track, because CbB has NO CHORD TRACK . . . 

Thank you for mentioning this. Back in the 90s I made chord tracks to send to Roland (!!!) "Intelligent Arranger" modules. Easy Peasy.  If I get out one of those,** it should motivate me to attempt starting to navigate the Cakewalk Arranger learning curve.  

2 hours ago, Roland-Music said:

Funny - to learn how to use the Arranger Track - there a many video tutorials online, which you can simple recreate. 

 As far as the online videos, some of them are a total waste of time.  Maybe its  just me but I find that a list of 4-8 steps in text is far more efficient--takes less time than watching a 3-6 minute video (forget about the longer ones that might have a gem of wisdom or two in a 12-20 minute video). I understand that some people can watch animated gifs and infer the steps from the visual presentation. Personal limitation--I can't unless I pause them and unfortunately it is a royal PITA to load an animated gif into software so it can be paused. 

**I even know where the box of power supplies is!

 

 

  

Edited July 10, 2020 by User 905133
to fix a type and to add the 2nd quotation

[Starship Krupa]

On 7/10/2020 at 6:31 AM, Roland-Music said:

there a many video tutorials online, which you can simple recreate.  To get a demo Project that fit your workflow is rare

I'm not making this request only for myself, and I'm not expecting projects that fit my workflow.

It would be nice to just in general, get some projects that were in different, perhaps updated styles of music, and show off and demonstrate the big, new feature.

Maybe a project from someone who has utilized the Export to BandLab feature to show that off as well. Cakewalk is a different program, a superset of SONAR. It has surpassed SONAR in every way (except for bundled add-ons), so why not have a demo project or two that shows that off?

[msmcleod]

The issue is that there's so many different ways you can use the arranger.

Some will just use the sections as markers. I pretty much do this in any case, as it makes project navigation from the arranger inspector dead easy.

Others will use the arranger to build up a blank song format and fill in the blanks.

You can also use sections as a "permanent selection" if you want to move or copy sections of your project around.  I quite often create temporary sections, as it's just as easy to create a section as it is to select from the time ruler, but I know that moving/copying a section will copy EVERYTHING rather than having to revert to cut/copy special and check a bunch of options.

Others will use it for the arrangements feature - which has a bunch of workflows as well....

It's original intended purpose was to experiment with different song formats... e.g. you've written a verse & a chorus, and you want to try out different arrangements of verses & choruses.

When mixing, you can create arrangements that only contain a section from the beginning of the song and one at the end so you can check the relative balance between the two.

You could also use it as part of an album mastering process - put each stereo mix back to back (either on separate tracks or the same track), and mark out each song with its own section.  Then create an arrangement for each song (i.e. each arrangement only contains the one section).  Once you've done your mastering, you can then go to export, and export all arrangements and it'll export each song as an individual file.

We've purposely designed the arranger to be as flexible as possible, without dictating any particular workflow.

[Starship Krupa]

My suggestion wasn't intended with the idea to lock anyone into a particular use or workflow, more that I'm proud of Cakewalk for making these advancements, and this seems like an easy way to show off what people can do with them. And in the hope it would spark some ideas as to how I and other users might use them to our advantage.

I mean, what are the demo projects for? My impression is that they are there to show off what people can do with, well, SONAR circa whenever Scott and the others submitted their projects, and sometimes to ask people having trouble with the software "does the error occur when you load the demo project?"

So how about we have a demo project or two to show what people can do with Cakewalk by BandLab circa today? Work for hire, winners get a BandLab Link Digital.