What works\What does not work

[Nathan Champaigne]

I use Audacity? Why? Cakewalk does not contain a wave editor. Should it? I can't even pull up a wave page in Cakewalk to make cuts or paste phrases into bars. What do I do with Audacity? I copy, cut, paste, manually quantize lyrics to a midi beat. I pitch correct single words or phrases, using midi comparison,  bend or cheat. I'm a poor singer, with a voice that does not pass the test, so my goal is a completed song, with a voice that is tolerable, fixed if not potent.  I copy whole vocals for accompaniment and change pitches into 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths,for harmonies or take the whole thing down an octave and fix sibilance. I'm a vocal fake. That's what music is today and I need the tools to accomplish this.
Cakewalk has a lot of wasted space in it's window structure. It's been changed from a workable original state as it evolved through it's rebranding and DAW development. DAWs have been relying upon plug-ins to add flavor to the mix, but something was lost from the original design.
Why does the pen disallow the writer to move the midi note around and simultaneously, why doesn't it also behave without an audible response? Why are the tools on a separate window instead of inside the piano roll view, or the staff editor? Why isn't there a full sized audio wave editor? Why do effects have to be applied to whole tracks and not words or phrases?  Why isn't the tools I have highlighted in the image below included included in the piano roll editor and the staff editor? What happened to combine tracks, such that it is no longer simple as right clicking and clicking combine for selected MIDI tracks? Why is mix-down so complex?
It also too bad that both external and internal system syths can not be used at the same time. Also all DAW software brands on the market fail to disclose just how soft synth instruments are set up and implemented within  their program structure, so for me, being old-school, I have no use or understanding of the need and use of VST instruments. You can't apply what you are not grounded in. The irony is that usually when I master a technology, I do some pretty innovative stuff with it.

[Josh Wolfer]

2 hours ago, Nathan Champaigne said:

Why does the pen disallow the writer to move the midi note around and simultaneously,

It does. Alt click with the multitool. 

why doesn't it also behave without an audible response?

It does have an audible live response. It plays the midi note into your instrument

Why are the tools on a separate window instead of inside the piano roll view, or the staff editor?

Not sure what you mean. Middle click and the tools menu pops up.

Why isn't there a full sized audio wave editor?

Because their are amazing options already available that can easily be intergrated in the tools menu. I personally use RX a LOT.

Why do effects have to be applied to whole tracks and not words or phrases? 

They don't. You can drag effects onto a clip and it'll only affect that clip. I do this all day with film sound editing. 

Why isn't the tools I have highlighted in the image below included included in the piano roll editor and the staff editor?

Middle click. 

What happened to combine tracks, such that it is no longer simple as right clicking and clicking combine for selected MIDI tracks?

There is bounce to Tracks for audio. I'd have to understand your midi work flow. Right click bounce to clips works. I'm not sure why you're midi data is on separate tracks, but you can quickly move them to be consolidated. 

Why is mix-down so complex?

How so? It's fairly standard audio engineer routing

It also too bad that both external and internal system syths can not be used at the same time.

 they absolutely can be. You just need one to be set as the midi time clock master. 

Also all DAW software brands on the market fail to disclose just how soft synth instruments are set up and implemented within  their program structure, so for me, being old-school, I have no use or understanding of the need and use of VST instruments.

 there are many many resources to learn this, and they're all fairly straightforward and simple. The manual is also extremely detailed. And Cakewalk simplifies at greatly with the use of instrument tracks. 

 

[chuckebaby]

there are so many questions here im not sure where to begin except to say, check out the manual and watch some videos. I went from Pro audio 9 to Sonar 7 and then 8, 8.5 then X1 was the big change, it was a whole new design it took me a while to figure out what was what but once i did, the work flow is 10 times easier then it was back then.

[Max Arwood]

Nathan - Why isn't there a full sized audio wave editor?

 

Max - You can even use  Audacity to edit your audio in Cakewalk if you want.  That way you will have less to lean. There is an app to make it easy to add editors to Cakewalk.  Both ways to add them are in the info file. My choice is SCook's tool. I have RX and Sound Forge set up thanks to SCook!.

 

You can add Editors with this app -> (written by SCook )

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-HI4FV99Vq6ZlFfdE90Rm85NHc

Reading Info Here ->

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Adding-programs-to-the-SONAR-Utilities-Menu-a-new-tool-Updated-for-CbB-m3237117.aspx
 

 

[scook]

28 minutes ago, Max Arwood said:

You can even use  Audacity to edit your audio in Cakewalk if you want

I am not sure about this.

IIRC, older versions of Audacity open wav files from the command line but newer versions apparently do not. At least, that is what I have been told. I have not messed with Audacity.

That said, ANY program accepting a wav file as a command line argument may be integrated into the Tools section of the CbB Utility menu. AFAIK, this includes all dedicated audio editors.

But it does not stop there. ANY file may be added to the Utility menu as well, as long as Windows knows what to do with it. For example, the User Reference pdf may be added and it will open based on its file association. The Tools Editor may be added, in fact the option is built into the program itself.

28 minutes ago, Max Arwood said:

You can add Editors with this app -> (written by SCook )

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-HI4FV99Vq6ZlFfdE90Rm85NHc

Reading Info Here ->

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Adding-programs-to-the-SONAR-Utilities-Menu-a-new-tool-Updated-for-CbB-m3237117.aspx

I don't recommend posting the direct link to the tool because those links change with every release. The link to page where all the tools and other Cakewalk stuff are located does not change. This is the link I post https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eiVH_I1clbbRtWFh4-3Mo7HANjCxR8SwqHJtYXy19gw/pub . The utilities including the Tools Editor are about half way down the page.

The Tools Editor help contains the link to the knowledge base article and posts in the old forum by @Noel Borthwick about the registry entries. They were the info I used to write the script.

[JohnK]

I have not read the whole thread, but in your image, where you say "permanent wasted space" is where if you make it wide enough, the Solo, Mute & record buttons appear. I click / use them very often. And the space after that shows the peak levels for that track. Also useful when mastering/mix-down. And you can always narrow the column, and it will be gone.