this program is NOT User Friendly.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

1 hour ago, Clovis Ramsay said:

So once Cakewalk was no longer a Cakewalk for the songwriter to use, DAWs such as Studio One came up and thats where they really excel at doing.  Providing drag and drop, user intuitive functions that eliminates the need for a patient and technical brain. 

Have you tried the Bandlab App ?  Maybe this would be more suited to your needs, and then you can open the same project in Calkwalk later for more detailed production work. ☺️

Edited September 8, 2021 by Mark Morgon-Shaw

[Craig Anderton]

6 hours ago, Clovis Ramsay said:

I'm sorry to say that I write music outside of Cakewalk but when it comes to mixing and mastering, I wouldn't succeed without Cakewalk.

I don't think you need to be sorry to say that at all, I know more and more people who use more than one DAWs. It's not just a Cakewalk thing, I have a friend who is a technical wizard and knows his way around Pro Tools like the back of his hand, because of all the video work he does. But, he writes his songs in Studio One, and then transitions over to Pro Tools. 

Cakewalk really does provide a superb environment for mixing. I'm very disappointed that Propellerhead decided to ditch ReWire, it was key to using programs like Live and FL Studio with a "mothership" DAW like Cakewalk. 

The analogy I use is cars. A lot of people own more than one car, like a sedan for driving around town, and a pickup truck or van for other uses. Cakewalk being free is a huge incentive for people to add it to their toolset.

[GreenLight]

3 hours ago, Craig Anderton said:

The analogy I use is cars. A lot of people own more than one car, like a sedan for driving around town, and a pickup truck or van for other uses. Cakewalk being free is a huge incentive for people to add it to their toolset.

I am not a car person... but what kind of a car would Cakewalk be then? A ?or maybe?️? ?

[Jerry Gerber]

10 hours ago, Clovis Ramsay said:

Cakewalk is a virtual mixing mothership built for an engineers list of things one may desire if one found a lamp with a genie inside.  However, Cakewalk is no longer a fast intuitive platform for songwriters with minimal knowledge and comfort using a mixing board and outboard hardware.   There is nothing worse than needing to remain in a constant flow state when writing a song and it all comes crashing to a halt because we spend so much time looking under every rock in the canyon for a feature that intuitively makes since, maybe you have seen other platforms in for other creative sectors utilize very intuitive processes that make Creating so much more productive and exciting.  

Im sorry to say that I write music outside of Cakewalk but when it comes to mixing and mastering, I wouldn't succeed without Cakewalk.  It use to be creator and songwriter focused back in late 90s-2005 as it wasn't common for everyone to have home recording studios.  As soon as Roland acquired Cakewalk, they were trying to take the success of their digital recording consoles and offer a DAW that was already superior to their rather clunky and stone aged "VS" mixing software.  It was built into every VS console and IT WAS THE DOWNFALL of one of the best small factor digital recording consoles every made.  

SO they pumped a ton of cash in a redesign of SONAR which is still what it looks like today 10 years later.  And it became super engineer "audio school" student with a BS degree in "Audio Production" centric that only someone who would spend $50k to learn how to copy and paste and quantize and where to stick that one funny looking plug at, could properly utilize SONAR.    

So once Cakewalk was no longer a Cakewalk for the songwriter to use, DAWs such as Studio One came up and thats where they really excel at doing.  Providing drag and drop, user intuitive functions that eliminates the need for a patient and technical brain. 

 

It's both interesting and strange how different we all are.  I've produced 15 albums using Cakewalk, doing all my composition in the staff view and the event list.  I've written many songs and short pieces, 2 concertos and 11 symphonies--all in Cakewalk.  Since Bandlab fixed numerous staff view issues, I've been very happy with it.  As I said, everyone's workflow and approach to composition is different.  Luckily for me, Cakewalk and I have been highly compatible!

Jerry

Edited September 8, 2021 by jsg

[pbognar]

On 9/8/2021 at 3:26 AM, Clovis Ramsay said:

"So once Cakewalk was no longer a Cakewalk for the songwriter to use, DAWs such as Studio One came up and thats where they really excel at doing."

While I don't disagree that SO has features which songwriters would appreciate, I'm curious about which songwriting features Cakewalk lost.

There are excellent "music assistant" programs like Scaler or even Band in a Box which come in VST format that make it really easy to integrate with DAWs like Cakewalk.  - though it would be great if Cakewalk had a chordtrack.. ?

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/8/2021 at 11:17 AM, GreenLight said:

what kind of a car would Cakewalk be then

Easy:

Cakewalk: hot-rodded vintage Dodge. Lots of quirks, manual shift, but on certain types of tracks (heh heh) it can blow the doors off of more recent rides when under the control of a skilled driver. Much-imitated to this day. Requires addition of third-party add-ons to be competitive. Parent company changed hands multiple times, got to the point of bankruptcy before being rescued by foreign interests. Fun for everyone, but it's especially loved by men over 35 who think that anything newer (which is just about everything) is for kids or dilettantes.

Studio One: Hybrid. Modern, efficient, clean, but the version that is plug-in enabled costs substantially more.

REAPER: Indy Car. Takes a long time to get good at it, but once you do, you can really fly. The more you customize it past the standard configuration the faster you can go. Some people pay to use it, others don't. Seems to go a long time between fatal crashes.

Pro Tools: SUV. Annoyingly ubiquitous, overpriced, consumes more than its share of resources, people who use it seem unaware of the existence of other vehicles. Was considered cutting edge long ago, now it's the choice of responsible grown-ups with well-paying jobs who can't imagine living without it.

Ableton Live!: Lowered Acura with neon lights, 12" subs, wide tiny profile tires and ground fog effect. Popularity is outstanding among teens, veteran users find it somewhat harder to see the appeal. Awesome for doing loops that kids love but old people think is just noise, although the world is starting to get the drift.

Samplitude: Citroen. Made in Europe, said to be reasonably popular there, but you don't know anyone who uses it.

Mixcraft: Mini Cooper. Fun, easy to operate. Will get you to your destination, but runs a greater risk of being outgrown.

Cubase: 80's Volvo station wagon. Still popular among broke working musicians who originally got it for free. Not the sexiest, but retains its utility over many decades, will likely never die until all of its kind have become obsolete. Also been through multiple owners.

FL Studio: Volkswagen E-UP/HondaE. Excels when used in an urban environment. Demographic skews younger; older ones are concerned that you can't get far enough with it.

[GreenLight]

4 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Easy:

Samplitude: Citroen. Made in Europe, said to be reasonably popular there, but you don't know anyone who uses it.

//////

Cubase: 80's Volvo station wagon. Still popular among broke working musicians who originally got it for free. Not the sexiest, but retains its utility over many decades, will likely never die until all of its kind have become obsolete. Also been through multiple owners.

Hahahaha, brilliant! Loved this, laughed extra at Samplitude and Cubase! ?

And you Cakewalk description "Fun for everyone, but it's especially loved by men over 35 who think that anything newer (which is just about everything) is for kids or dilettantes." is frighteningly accurate... ?

[JoeGBradford]

You leave my Citroen Berlingo alone Starship - it's great to sleep in at festivals! Just don't try to do a u turn on anything narrower than an airport runway!

[Starship Krupa]

35 minutes ago, JoeGBradford said:

You leave my Citroen Berlingo alone Starship - it's great to sleep in at festivals!

I'll watch out for them next time I watch 24 Hours of LeMans! (bucket list: camp at LeMans)

[Lee Shapiro]

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet (sorry I didn't read through every single post in this thread), but for me, you have to have two (video) monitors.
I set it up with the tracks view, instruments, and synth rack on the left monitor, and the mixer console and (tabbed) piano roll screen on the right monitor. 
Then all the main functions are right there in front of you.  I can't imagine trying to use this program with only one video monitor.   (Once you have two, you'll never go back) 
 

[oneofmany]

On 9/10/2021 at 11:39 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Cakewalk: hot-rodded vintage Dodge. Lots of quirks, manual shift, but on certain types of tracks (heh heh) it can blow the doors off of more recent rides when under the control of a skilled driver. Much-imitated to this day. Requires addition of third-party add-ons to be competitive. Parent company changed hands multiple times, got to the point of bankruptcy before being rescued by foreign interests. Fun for everyone, but it's especially loved by men over 35 who think that anything newer (which is just about everything) is for kids or dilettantes.

Omg. That explains in a nutshell why I use this software! 

Over 35? Check. 

Yard full of 60/70s Mopars? Check. 

Older is better? Not always, but for the most part? Check. 

Quirky? Yeah, I suppose haha 

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/11/2021 at 7:03 PM, Lee Shapiro said:

I can't imagine trying to use this program with only one video monitor.

I do it all the time, and on a 15" too.

Despite the fact that my main system is a dual monitor system, and when I'm in battle mode, Track View on 1, Multidock on 2, I've worked out a single-monitor method. The Skylight interface

Main points: Keep the Multidock docked at the bottom and drag it as high as you need it to go to be able to edit Piano Roll or mix on Console or whatever. Then use the "D" key to quickly switch back and forth between Track View and Multidock.

Also, if I'm working in the Track View and need a channel strip and Track View at the same time, I can have it with Inspector.

If I want to I can go mobile and still work in Cakewalk.

[Max Arwood]

On 9/10/2021 at 11:39 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Samplitude: Citroen. Made in Europe, said to be reasonably popular there, but you don't know anyone who uses it.

Ok you know 1  - I use it! been burning CDs and Mastering in it since it was Red Roaster!

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

On 9/8/2021 at 7:17 PM, GreenLight said:

I am not a car person... but what kind of a car would Cakewalk be then? A ?or maybe?️? ?

 

[winkpain]

I am impressed by the level of patience and restraint witnessed in this post (and others of similar nature) in regard to responding to the OP's stated "issue" . Obviously the discussion has evolved into having some valuable points being made, something that, unfortunately, cannot be said of the opening post.

Kudos to your wiser, calmer heads!

[Craig Anderton]

1 hour ago, winkpain said:

I am impressed by the level of patience and restraint witnessed in this post (and others of similar nature) in regard to responding to the OP's stated "issue" . Obviously the discussion has evolved into having some valuable points being made, something that, unfortunately, cannot be said of the opening post.

Kudos to your wiser, calmer heads!

And we've had fun with the car thing!

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/18/2021 at 7:38 AM, winkpain said:

I am impressed by the level of patience and restraint witnessed in this post

I know, huh? I've been participating in online discussions for over 30 years and this is the first place I've seen it happen where someone started a rant that deteriorated into to a level-headed discussion. This isn't the first time, either.

[Tom Richards]

I've been using since 1998 and I'm constantly amazed how this program becomes more and more less intuitive.

[User 905133]

2 minutes ago, Tom Richards said:

I've been using since 1998 and I'm constantly amazed how this program becomes more and more less intuitive.

I always thought that intuition was a function of experience.  When new features are introduced and I have no experience with them, I find they are very unintuitive. So when the Skylight UI was introduced, it was totally unintuitive. I haven't even tried to master some recently added features such as articulations and exporting.   

On the other hand when I saw Workspaces, I decided that might be very useful for my needs and I spent the time to tackle the learning curve.  I don't know everything about Workspaces, but for my needs it has become very intuitive.

Hope this helps.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

7 hours ago, Tom Richards said:

I've been using since 1998 and I'm constantly amazed how this program becomes more and more less intuitive.

Forget it