2020.11 Update 1 Feature Overview [Updated 25-Nov-2020]

[Morten Saether]

[Updated 25-Nov-2020] Version 2020.11 Update 1 (build 26.11.0.099) now available!

 

Introduction

The 2020.11 release introduces Articulation Maps, which are a universal way to deal with expressions/articulations in VST instruments or hardware MIDI instruments. Other enhancements include in-app activation/refresh, ARA/Melodyne algorithm picker when converting audio to MIDI or performing tempo extraction, Clips pane drawing and scrolling optimizations, project template enhancements, and much more, including over 50 bug fixes,  all in keeping with our goal of making Cakewalk as reliable and enjoyable as possible.

The following highlights are intended to provide an overview of the more significant changes. Please also refer to the new features section of our documentation for more detailed information on the features.

Please give us feedback on this release. We hope you like it!

 

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Update Nov 25 2020:

2020.11 Update 1 (build 26.11.0.099)

Note: If you are using a non-English version of 2020.11 Update 1 (build 26.11.0.098) and experience blank articulation map menu commands, please download and run the Cakewalk 2020.09 Rollback installer, then reinstall 2020.11 Update 1 (Help > Check for Updates).  

 

Enhancements:

Extract Keyswitch Articulations

You can now extract key-switches that already exist in a MIDI track and convert them to articulations.

To extract keyswitches:

1. Make sure the target articulation map has already been added to the project.
2. Open the Piano Roll view for the track that contains the keyswitches.
3. Right-click the left side of the Articulations pane, point to Extract Keyswitch Articulations, then select the target articulation map.

Cakewalk will attempt to match events within the MIDI track to any articulations in the selected articulation map. The following rules apply:

• It will only extract generated MIDI events, not transforms.
• It will only extract key-switches based on Notes, Control Change, or Program Change events.
• When matching an articulation that generates multiple events, it will only match events if they are in the same MIDI clip.

 

Replace an existing articulation map with a newer version

Cakewalk now allows you to replace an existing articulation map with a newer/updated version of the same map.

When a newer version of an articulation map is imported into a project, it is added as a new map instead of replacing the original map. To replace the old map with the new version, right-click the old map in the Articulation Map Editor’s Articulation Maps in Project section, then point to Replace with and select the new map. The Replace with submenu lists all other articulation maps currently within the project.

 

Bug fixes

Stability:

• App can hang on startup at the splash screen when checking for updates with unstable internet connection.
• Crash or failure to load a new sample in Drum Replacer.
• Crash when committing an arrangement containing sections from multiple Arranger tracks.
• Crash could occur when closing the app.
• Sporadic crash when Display Muted Takes in Parent Track is enabled.
• Fixed user reported crash on export audio.
• Fixed rare user reported crash after recording audio.
• Fixed rare user reported crash on export when VS100 requests a synth parameter.
• Fixed rare user reported crash when opening Arranger or Articulation Map dialogs.
• "Catastrophic failure" error could occur if a project contained an invalid arrangement section when attempting to export audio.

Plug-ins:

• Track Names shown in plug-ins are truncated or show invalid characters after 2020.11 update. This was reported in Console One plug-ins, Izotope Neutron and Waves CLA Mix Hub.
• Waves CLA Mix Hub displays “Channel name contains illegal characters …” message on opening or saving projects in 2020.11 release.
• Tempo based effects and instruments were not being properly initialized when residing within the ProChannel or FX Chains. For example, Sonitus: FX Delay fails to get Host Tempo when in FX Chains.

Articulation Maps:

• Articulations selected unexpectedly with lasso select when Select Track Articulations with Clips is disabled.
• Articulation maps fail to import if the map contains special characters such as “ as part of the map/group/articulation name.
• Insert Time not working correctly with articulations.
• Articulation map dialogs do not hide folders if their subfolders do not contain files that match the search filter.
• Apply articulations by group applies more than one group of articulations.
• Articulation Map Library does not refresh automatically after exporting a map to the library folder.
• Articulation resize fails if the Snap to Grid setting causes the section end to be snapped beyond the start of the next articulation section.
• Browse For Folder dialog box can open on incorrect display when importing articulations from a directory.
• Clicking on an empty space in the Clips pane selects articulations.
• Deleting an articulation from one track swaps to showing the articulations on another track.

UI:

• Unable to resize an Arranger section in an inactive track to the left if there are sections to the left in the active Arranger track.
• Creating an Arranger section with a start time < 0 deletes other sections.
• Enable MIDI Output check box was missing from Insert Synth Options dialog when opened from the Synth Rack.
• Renaming a Patch Point fails to update the send name in the track strip of the Track view.
• Drag move of composite clip in track folders not working.
• Mouse cursor can change unexpectedly when hovering outside of a modal dialog.
• When clicking a note name in the Piano Roll Drum Grid to select all notes of that pitch, pressing the DELETE key does not delete the selected notes.

Misc.:

• Export as Standard MIDI file did not respect the current track selection.
• Only allow refreshing activation state if an app update download isn't already underway.
• Don't show duplicate toasts when checking for updates.
• In-app updater: Download manager should prefer the update installer if installed version >= last public release and less than latest public release.

 

---

2020.11 Highlights

 

Articulation Maps

Articulation maps are a universal way to deal with expressions/articulations in VST instruments or hardware MIDI instruments that may be controlled by various methods including:

• Note “key switches”
• The velocity of a note
• Control change events
• Grouping of patches across different MIDI channels (e.g. legato strings patch on ch 1, pizzicato patch on ch 2, etc.)

If you work with sample libraries and virtual instruments, articulation maps are sure to improve your MIDI and articulation/keyswitch workflow.

Recreating a convincing performance with sample libraries and virtual instruments can be a difficult task. The process is made somewhat easier if the sampled instrument includes a range of performance articulations, which is commonly controlled via “keyswitches”. These are used to trigger different sample layers that contain the various performance options. Cakewalk's support for articulation maps make it easy to work with articulations and keyswitches.

Articulation maps provide a much simpler way of switching articulations, without having to manually edit MIDI events in the track. All articulations appear neatly at the top of the PRV instead of spread across the Notes pane, which helps you to better visualize and edit the articulations and keyswitches.

When recording, you can focus on the actual performance — getting the right notes, rather than building expression into the performance — then use articulations to add expression after the basic performance has been recorded. Adding articulations as part of the editing process is often easier than trying to play keyswitches in live via your keyboard.

Articulations do either, or both, of the following:

• Trigger new MIDI events (create ‘MIDI Events’ in the Articulation Map Editor)
• Alter existing MIDI events (create ‘MIDI Transforms’ in the Articulation Map Editor)

Articulations that are added to MIDI and Instrument tracks are automatically applied during playback.

Cakewalk includes a few general-purpose articulation maps that let you experiment with the feature. You can create your own articulation maps, or download maps for orchestra libraries and virtual instruments.

Cakewalk can import Cubase expression maps, so you can get started quickly by downloading maps for popular instrument libraries such as Vienna Symphonic Library, Garritan, Kontakt, etc.

 

In-app activation

You can now activate Cakewalk directly from within the app, without requiring BandLab Assistant. Cakewalk must be activate once every 6 months.

When starting Cakewalk for the first time, if the app has not yet been activated via BandLab assistant, you will be presented with a BandLab sign-in dialog box. After signing in, Cakewalk will automatically activate itself. You must use your BandLab user name in the sign-in prompt, not your email address. Please note that sign-in is completely optional and only used to activate Cakewalk independently from BandLab Assistant. Sign-in currently does not support Single sign-on. If you do not have your BandLab username and password, please use BandLab Assistant to perform activation.

Activation will occur automatically when launching the app if it is in the “grace period”, the period that begins when you see the timeout toast notification asking you to sign in to BandLab to activate soon.

Under normal circumstances, activation will require no manual user intervention going forward, beyond the initial sign-in. 

Note that an Internet connection is required  for performing activation as described above but not required for general Cakewalk usage. Offline activation is also an option, which requires use of BandLab Assistant to submit an offline activation request. 

You can force an activation refresh with the Help > Refresh Activation command.

 

ARA/Melodyne algorithm picker (pre-release)

When converting audio to MIDI by dragging an audio clip to a MIDI track, or performing tempo extraction by dragging an audio clip to the time ruler, you can now select the desired algorithm.

Note: The algorithm picker is a pre-release feature and will only be visible if you are running Melodyne 5 and higher.

 

VST instruments can use custom instrument definitions

Some VST instruments do not expose their patch list, either because they are emulating a hardware device and solely rely on MIDI bank select/program changes, or in the case of library hosts such as Kontakt, they have no fixed list of instruments - in other words its up to the user to choose their instrument mapping.

You can now use any instrument definition with a VSTi from a new drop-down menu in the Patch Browser dialog box (click Patch Browser in the Inspector).

If < default for instrument > is selected, then the patches are retrieved from the VSTi as normal, otherwise the patch list is taken from the selected instrument definition.

 

Piano Roll view enhancements

• Piano Roll view Note drawing now automatically switches direction as necessary during the gesture (left to right or right to left).
• Open Piano Roll view when double-clicking white space on a MIDI or Instrument track.

 

VST enhancements

• Updated to VST3 SDK 3.7.0
• Support MIDI CCs via VST3 MIDI output (must also be supported by the plug-in itself; allows generative MIDI out VST3 plug-ins such as the Reason Rack plug-in to send MIDI CCs to Cakewalk)
• Support channel aftertouch sent from VST3 plugins

 

Misc. enhancements

Application memory footprint has been reduced (dynamic VST Plug-in Buffer sizes)

In prior versions of Cakewalk, cached plug-in buffers would be allocated at a size of 32K samples irrespective of the audio buffer size. This gets quite expensive when you have a project with hundreds of plug-ins especially with plug-ins having multiple inputs and outputs.

Plug-in buffer sizes are now dynamically adjusted to be based on the audio buffer size rather than an arbitrary max limit. This makes a big difference in projects running at low latency buffers.

 

Support for mono only ASIO input devices

Cakewalk now supports ASIO devices with a single mono input, such as the iRig Pro.

 

Relative resizing of selected tracks

You can resize all selected tracks to the same size, or by a relative amount, by using the following modifiers:

• SHIFT+drag resizes all selected tracks to the same size
• CTRL+drag resizes all selected tracks by the same amount relative to their current size

 

ARA updates

Cakewalk supports the latest ARA SDK from Celemony.

 

Adjust split point on a single Take lane

If you have several clips in a track with a common split point, the Move Split Point tool always moves all the split points together.

To move only the split point on a single lane, hold down the ALT key when using the Move Split Point tool.

 

CTRL-click Duplicate Track button to specify settings

To specify settings when duplicating a track, hold down the CTRL key and click the Duplicate Track button .

 

Allow track FX bin to be bypassed via control surfaces rather than just individual FX

In addition to individual effects, entire track FX Racks can now be bypassed via control surfaces.

Passing an FX index of -1 (65535) will bypass the entire track FX Rack.

The Mackie Control surface has been updated to use M1+Select button to toggle track FX Rack bypass.

 

Update installer has option to launch Cakewalk

When installing an update from within Cakewalk, you can now choose to automatically relaunch Cakewalk after the installation completes.

 

New Project File dialog improvements

The New Project File dialog box (File > New) now lets you specify folder paths, tempo, meter, bit depth, and sample rate settings for the -- No Tracks or Buses -- option (previously named -- Blank Project --).

 

File Stats improvements

When starting a new project from a project template, the File Stats window in the Notes Browser now start the Editing Time and Revision counters at 0.

To reset the file stats, right-click in the File Stats window and select Reset File Stats.

 

Early Access Notifications

Cakewalk now presents a toast notification when an Early Access build is available. Early Access builds are completely optional, providing access to the next version of Cakewalk before its official release. 

 

Optimizations

Clips pane drawing and scrolling optimizations

• Major optimizations to clips view drawing to eliminate redundant drawing of clips.
• Projects with tracks containing many Take lanes with muted clips now draw and scroll more than 20x faster.
• Scrolling with Display Muted Takes In Parent Track enabled now has almost similar performance to having that option disabled.
• Waveform drawing is now optimized for faster drawing.

Note: The Display Muted Takes In Parent Track option now defaults to OFF for new installations.

 

Bus pane optimizations

• Drawing and mouse handling in the Bus pane has been optimized to prevent audio glitches and late buffers

 

 

Latest release notes are here.
See prior release notes.
Check out all new features released to date.

 

Previous release:

2020.09 Feature Overview

2020.08 Feature Overview

2020.05 Feature Overview

2020.04 Feature Overview

2020.01 Feature Overview

2019.11/12 Feature Overview

2019.09 Feature Overview

2019.07 Feature Overview

 

 

[JoeGBradford]

Top work guys! Thanks to everyone involved in developing and testing

[chris.r]

7 hours ago, Morten Saether said:

• Open Piano Roll view when double-clicking white space on a MIDI or Instrument track.

Where is the white space? It's still white in Tungsten?

[Morten Saether]

11 minutes ago, chris.r said:

Where is the white space? It's still white in Tungsten?

Any blank/empty area in the Clips pane.

[Starise]

Articulation maps ?

This is a wonderful addition. Thanks!

[Jacques Boileau]

Thank you very much for this release. Cakewalk gets better and better and your hard work is truly appreciated. You guys rock!

[Will.]

11 hours ago, Morten Saether said:

Any blank/empty area in the Clips pane.

No success my side with this  feature or I'm missing something. I'm clicking on every blank space there is in CbB on a fresh empty template - with only a midi and instrument track inserts. 

Not a problem too. Cause I always click on an empty space to disable any region/clips and tracks that might be highlighted - this is especially important with doing fine comping and edits. 

So I'm kinda relieved. Cause the thought of have the PRV popping up every double click I do to ensure i'm not focused in on any material - had me worried for a while. Sjoe! Sigh of relief. ?

Edited November 10, 2020 by Will_Kaydo

[Xoo]

If you have changed the default double-click option for MIDI *clips*, the double click on a blank area of track doesn't work to open PRV:

[scook]

A better discussion for

but double-click in instrument/MIDI whitespace follows the click behavior setting

15 minutes ago, Kevin Perry said:

 

as long as snap is off or when clicking in an area outside of the snap setting as noted in

It appears Now messes with double-click.

[Andres Medina]

Wow. Fantastic addition the articulation map feature.

I'm already updating my instruments with brand new AM.!}

I encountered this issue: some exported maps doesn't re-import in same or new sessions, and I haven´t figured out why, despite some tests.

When I try to load the exported map, double clicking on it does nothing, as well as clicking the + command do nothing as well.

I tried in sessions with already loaded VSL instruments, and on blank sessions with no instrument loaded at all.

Other custom created maps work just fine.

Anyone having the same problem? 

I enclose one of my custom created maps, for testing.

 

Horns a 4.artmap

[msmcleod]

On 11/13/2020 at 7:57 PM, Andres Medina said:

Wow. Fantastic addition the articulation map feature.

I'm already updating my instruments with brand new AM.!}

I encountered this issue: some exported maps doesn't re-import in same or new sessions, and I haven´t figured out why, despite some tests.

When I try to load the exported map, double clicking on it does nothing, as well as clicking the + command do nothing as well.

I tried in sessions with already loaded VSL instruments, and on blank sessions with no instrument loaded at all.

Other custom created maps work just fine.

Anyone having the same problem? 

I enclose one of my custom created maps, for testing.

 

Horns a 4.artmapUnavailable

If double clicking on an articulation map does nothing, then it has detected no differences between the articulation map on disk, and the one in your project.

Could you post copies of both the original map (use export to save it) and the one you're trying to update it with?

[Toy]

It has been deleted.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Toy
The posting location was different.

[Jaime Ramírez]

I feel the engine slower in this last update. With this build i feel it faster. I was worried for the gap of time when i stop, click in a bar and play... was too slow to respond to each step.

[winkpain]

I downloaded this update, tried the Extract Keyswitch Articulations feature with a keyswitch map I had just created and it worked beautifully! All recorded/written MIDI keyswitches were converted to the appropriate articulation.... thingees (What do well call them? Articulation cells? Articulation clips?)

Then I added one more keyswitch that I had forgotten to the map, attempted extraction again, and CW hung up.

I opened a new project, started from scratch again creating the keyswitch map again and attempted an extraction, and it hung again. Repeated attempts now all end up in hanging Cakewalk. No CW minidump was created, but I took a couple minidumps from Task Manager...

 

Edit:

It seems to happen when there are multiple take lanes. As I recorded the keyswitches in a separate take(s), there were of course multiple take lanes. Repeated attempts at extracting the keyswitches to mapped articulations causes the crash (hang) every time. By simple bouncing the MIDI all to one clip, I can then extract with no problem.

Is this single MIDI clip containing both musical notes and keyswitches a condition for extraction??

 

Edit (Nov 24):

FIXED in latest build

Edited November 24, 2020 by winkpain
added more info

[msmcleod]

4 hours ago, winkpain said:

...

It seems to happen when there are multiple take lanes. As I recorded the keyswitches in a separate take(s), there were of course multiple take lanes. Repeated attempts at extracting the keyswitches to mapped articulations causes the crash (hang) every time. By simple bouncing the MIDI all to one clip, I can then extract with no problem.

Is this single MIDI clip containing both musical notes and keyswitches a condition for extraction??

It shouldn't be... the only condition for keyswitches being in the same clip is when the articulation generates more than one event (e.g. CC n 127 at start, CC n 0 at end) . In this case, both events need to be in the same clip.

It any case, it shouldn't crash or hang. We'll look into it.

[msmcleod]

4 hours ago, winkpain said:

I downloaded this update, tried the Extract Keyswitch Articulations feature with a keyswitch map I had just created and it worked beautifully! All recorded/written MIDI keyswitches were converted to the appropriate articulation.... thingees (What do well call them? Articulation cells? Articulation clips?)

Then I added one more keyswitch that I had forgotten to the map, attempted extraction again, and CW hung up.

I opened a new project, started from scratch again creating the keyswitch map again and attempted an extraction, and it hung again. Repeated attempts now all end up in hanging Cakewalk. No CW minidump was created, but I took a couple minidumps from Task Manager...

 

Edit:

It seems to happen when there are multiple take lanes. As I recorded the keyswitches in a separate take(s), there were of course multiple take lanes. Repeated attempts at extracting the keyswitches to mapped articulations causes the crash (hang) every time. By simple bouncing the MIDI all to one clip, I can then extract with no problem.

Is this single MIDI clip containing both musical notes and keyswitches a condition for extraction??

Can you PM me a copy of your project ? - I can't reproduce any crash or hang.

[winkpain]

2 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Can you PM me a copy of your project ? - I can't reproduce any crash or hang.

Done

 

[alirezaarnam]

thanks a lot , Please make it possible to change type and the font size for  name audio track and instrument , It will be very good If this happens thanks again

Edited November 25, 2020 by alirezaarnam

[vlefteris]

Thank you but bandlab assistant gave me only 26.11.0.098 not 26.11.0.099.

[Noel Borthwick]

Just now, vlefteris said:

Thank you but bandlab assistant gave me only 26.11.0.098 not 26.11.0.099.

@vlefteris did you see this in the release notes?
Note: If you are using a non-English version of 2020.11 Update 1 (build 26.11.0.098) and experience blank articulation map menu commands, please download and run the Cakewalk 2020.09 Rollback installer, then reinstall 2020.11 Update 1 (Help > Check for Updates).