[UPDATED 05 APRIL] Chernobyl Studios - Cakewalk by Bandlab Tutorial Series

[fitzj]

Comprehensive Video.

To keep everyone happy on here by all means  do these videos but use the stock plugins that come with Bandlab. Recording, mixing and mastering is around $47-77 Dollars for other Daws tutorials.   If you want more you  will price yourself out of the market. The dollar exchange rate is  terrible for Euro and  Sterling so any higher will not just sell.  From the  numerous emails I receive all companies trading  in US dollars are  getting hit badly and they are offering huge discounts including Waves plugins which used to be so expensive. 

[ChernobylStudios]

Thanks for your feedback.

I still need to do some testing, because there are still some things that are just not feasible in Cakewalk yet at a professional level, but I think for 95% of people's needs, Cakewalk would do what people are looking for.

I definitely would use stock plugins and mostly free  stuff. 

The basic idea was to take a more-or-less comprehensive song that would showcase most of the needed functions and how to use them; as well as some one-off videos. I always think people learn better in context rather than just having a dozen disconnected videos.

[Feral State Sound]

On 10/25/2019 at 3:46 PM, ChernobylStudios said:

I have played around with CbB since the update and I'm happy to see the plugin issue was fixed, as well as a whole host of other bugs and issues.

I may need to continue these tutorials when I have time.

Just a shot in the dark, if I put together a comprehensive video tutorial series recording a song with free plugins and instruments and charged for it, what would you guys be willing to pay and what would you expect to see in it?

Thank you Scott! I would like to see the following:

1 - Mixing basics: gain staging, volume leveling, panning, EQ, Comp etc. I mean, all the things that you consider to be "basic" in a mixing context. Maybe it seems obvious but this days is easy to get lost diving on the internet and a content curator is much needed.

2 - Vocal, guitar, bass and drum editing and mixing using free tools (if possible).

3 - MIDI and sample libraries: focusing on drum instruments but also including things like orchestral instruments, guitar, basses and such.

Suggested price: 50$

PD: I though that you finally settled in Cubase, Are you feeling nostalgic?

[ChernobylStudios]

52 minutes ago, Feral State Sound said:

Thank you Scott! I would like to see the following:

1 - Mixing basics: gain staging, volume leveling, panning, EQ, Comp etc. I mean, all the things that you consider to be "basic" in a mixing context. Maybe it seems obvious but this days is easy to get lost diving on the internet and a content curator is much needed.

2 - Vocal, guitar, bass and drum editing and mixing using free tools (if possible).

3 - MIDI and sample libraries: focusing on drum instruments but also including things like orchestral instruments, guitar, basses and such.

Suggested price: 50$

PD: I though that you finally settled in Cubase, Are you feeling nostalgic?

Hey there,

Your points for #1 wouldn't be a problem and would be showcased in a real-time mix of a song.

Points for #2 are where things get iffy. For one, Cakewalk  will struggle with multi-tracked drums, however, I doubt highly most people are using Cakewalk to track multi-track drums. But editing the other instruments could be shown, I suppose.

#3, sure.  But most of that stuff isn't going to be free.

I'm not feeling very nostalgic, haha, I've totally converted to Cubase but I can't deny that I still get tons of questions, comments, and emails about using Cakewalk.   

[fitzj]

2 hours ago, ChernobylStudios said:

Hey there,

Your points for #1 wouldn't be a problem and would be showcased in a real-time mix of a song.

Points for #2 are where things get iffy. For one, Cakewalk  will struggle with multi-tracked drums, however, I doubt highly most people are using Cakewalk to track multi-track drums. But editing the other instruments could be shown, I suppose.

#3, sure.  But most of that stuff isn't going to be free.

I'm not feeling very nostalgic, haha, I've totally converted to Cubase but I can't deny that I still get tons of questions, comments, and emails about using Cakewalk.   

Scott

You said Cakewalk will struggle with multi-tracked drums. Can you explain further? Can you let us know the difference in  this feature in Cubase where I presume it works well to Cakewalk. Is Cakewalk aware of these issues?

[Tezza]

In terms of pricing, I use lynda.com because my library has an agreement with them which means I get all video tutorials free. However there are no Bandlab videos there only old Sonar. There are also free options on youtube but as you say, these are disconnected and not really that useful and hit and miss in terms of quality. I also have an account with Groove 3, don't know what is up there at the moment but I bought the Sonar videos when they had a special. I also bought the SWA stuff.

I think your videos are great but the opening overlays with skull and crossbones and fire put me off. I can see this coming from your background with heavy metal but to my eyes you are limiting yourself to this genre. In my opinion, the overlays should be more generic and professional that would appeal to all DAW users, including children. If I was a father and saw my kids watching your videos, I would be concerned. Also, some people might consider them devilish, again, limiting your audience.

In addition, DAW product manufacturers are more likely to recommend your videos if the level of professionalism you display, matches theirs.

Professional looking websites and content attract me to videos because I think I am buying a professional product. Your content is great but your presentation needs some work in my view.

I would buy a video such as you are describing with the above mentioned changes for $25.00 US. Exchange rates are terrible at the moment  and this would be 36.00 dollars or thereabouts in AUS. That's about the limit for me with videos.

I think you are in a position where you can have a unique product that can address a hole in the market and would be quite popular if you made it more appealing to a wider audience. Setting your price under the market threshold would be the best idea to start off, bigger turnover for slightly less money and taking into account current exchange rates. You could always have specials as well.

I also think you should stick with the stock FX plugins in Bandlab and supplement it with free VSTi plugins for instruments. This way, anyone can follow the tutorials.  

I hope you get it all done, then I will buy. Even though I have got quite proficient, I still like to use videos on the way others do things.

 

 

[msmcleod]

FWIW, the Groove3 "SONAR Explained" video is $35 USD and is 5.5 hours long, and IMO is one of the most comprehensive guides available.

I would suggest $25 USD to be a reasonable price.

Oh, and excellent work on the tutorials so far

 

[ChernobylStudios]

7 hours ago, msmcleod said:

FWIW, the Groove3 "SONAR Explained" video is $35 USD and is 5.5 hours long, and IMO is one of the most comprehensive guides available.

I would suggest $25 USD to be a reasonable price.

Oh, and excellent work on the tutorials so far

 

"SONAR Explained" is already almost 5 years old and is priced fairly for the fact it is more-or-less outdated.

$25 would never happen.

[ChernobylStudios]

16 hours ago, Tezza said:

In terms of pricing, I use lynda.com because my library has an agreement with them which means I get all video tutorials free. However there are no Bandlab videos there only old Sonar. There are also free options on youtube but as you say, these are disconnected and not really that useful and hit and miss in terms of quality. I also have an account with Groove 3, don't know what is up there at the moment but I bought the Sonar videos when they had a special. I also bought the SWA stuff.

I think your videos are great but the opening overlays with skull and crossbones and fire put me off. I can see this coming from your background with heavy metal but to my eyes you are limiting yourself to this genre. In my opinion, the overlays should be more generic and professional that would appeal to all DAW users, including children. If I was a father and saw my kids watching your videos, I would be concerned. Also, some people might consider them devilish, again, limiting your audience.

In addition, DAW product manufacturers are more likely to recommend your videos if the level of professionalism you display, matches theirs.

Professional looking websites and content attract me to videos because I think I am buying a professional product. Your content is great but your presentation needs some work in my view.

I would buy a video such as you are describing with the above mentioned changes for $25.00 US. Exchange rates are terrible at the moment  and this would be 36.00 dollars or thereabouts in AUS. That's about the limit for me with videos.

I think you are in a position where you can have a unique product that can address a hole in the market and would be quite popular if you made it more appealing to a wider audience. Setting your price under the market threshold would be the best idea to start off, bigger turnover for slightly less money and taking into account current exchange rates. You could always have specials as well.

I also think you should stick with the stock FX plugins in Bandlab and supplement it with free VSTi plugins for instruments. This way, anyone can follow the tutorials.  

I hope you get it all done, then I will buy. Even though I have got quite proficient, I still like to use videos on the way others do things.

 

 

Using sites like Lynda, etc., to orientate yourself on price is not a good idea. Those sites completely rip off the content creator. I did content for Udemy and for the amount of hours I put into the content, did not see a very good return. Udemy made a few thousand dollars off me, however.

I have worked with a lot of plugin companies doing video reviews and none of them have had any issues with my presentation or my style. I don't swear and     I'm not vulgar. I also did official reviews and videos for Cakewalk Sonar under Gibson. My experience is people care about results and what can help them. I have a good tracking of providing results and helping people.

$25 is not going to happen.   That's just silly.

I also know I could fill a hole in the market, which is why I'm considering doing it. I've been trying to contact Bandlab as well to see if this could become an official sanctioned thing.

Using mostly stock plugins was the plan for sure. I would still use premium stuff for my Submix/Master chain, but most processing work can be accomplished with stock stuff. Even the dinosaur Sonitus plugins.

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by ChernobylStudios

[ChernobylStudios]

17 hours ago, fitzj said:

Scott

You said Cakewalk will struggle with multi-tracked drums. Can you explain further? Can you let us know the difference in  this feature in Cubase where I presume it works well to Cakewalk. Is Cakewalk aware of these issues?

Oh man, this is a very famous and well known problem that goes back years and years. They know about it. But there isn't an easy solution and the only way to fix it is to re-code from the ground up. You can get away editing multi-tracked drums if they are about 3 minutes in length and played by Phil Rudd of AC/DC. Anything more complicated is a huge, huge pain.

I imagine it will get fixed, but not anytime soon.

[David Baay]

28 minutes ago, ChernobylStudios said:

Oh man, this is a very famous and well known problem that goes back years and years.

You should really follow up on some of the suggestions made in your old thread about your issues with editing multitrack drums before repeating this. Specifically, either apply markers from a guide track and quantize by stretching rather then by splitting as Lord Tim suggested, or Apply Trimming after splitting at transients as I suggested if that's still your preferred method:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Editing-multitrack-drums-is-completely-impossible-This-needs-to-be-addressed-m3362190.aspx

 

[ChernobylStudios]

1 minute ago, David Baay said:

You should really follow up on some of the suggestions made in your old thread about your issues with editing multitrack drums before repeating this. Specifically, either apply markers from a guide track and quantize by stretching rather then by splitting as Lord Tim suggested, or Apply Trimming after splitting at transients as I suggested if that's still your preferred method:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Editing-multitrack-drums-is-completely-impossible-This-needs-to-be-addressed-m3362190.aspx

 

Or editing drums should just work without having to dodge and weave to find ways to make it work. I use manual slip editing. Go ahead and try it and report back to me.

[David Baay]

It's not a dodge; it's simply a best practice. Apply Trimming just renders the non-destructive splits permanent so you're not tracking  a million hidden transient markers unnecessarily.

I wouldn't have suggested it if I hadn't tried it.  I've never personally experienced the kind of drastic performance degradation you reported but I know that splitting at transient markers and leaving AS active on all those thousands of slip-edited clips has the potential to cause that.

[Feral State Sound]

On 10/27/2019 at 9:10 PM, ChernobylStudios said:

Hey there,

Your points for #1 wouldn't be a problem and would be showcased in a real-time mix of a song.

Points for #2 are where things get iffy. For one, Cakewalk  will struggle with multi-tracked drums, however, I doubt highly most people are using Cakewalk to track multi-track drums. But editing the other instruments could be shown, I suppose.

#3, sure.  But most of that stuff isn't going to be free.

I'm not feeling very nostalgic, haha, I've totally converted to Cubase but I can't deny that I still get tons of questions, comments, and emails about using Cakewalk.   

Maybe the easy solution is to use REAPER to edit the multitrack drums and export the stems to Cakewalk again. 

On the other hand, I think that you should concentrate on doing an excellent course and just then think on a competitive price that matches its quality. 

Edit: Finally, I can't understand why Bandlab is not interested on working with you or with other content creators to make oficial stuff. They are not doing nothing on that regard.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Feral State Sound

[fitzj]

2 hours ago, Feral State Sound said:

Maybe the easy solution is to use REAPER to edit the multitrack drums and export the stems to Cakewalk again. 

On the other hand, I think that you should concentrate on doing an excellent course and just then think on a competitive price that matches its quality. 

Edit: Finally, I can't understand why Bandlab is not interested on working with you or with other content creators to make oficial stuff. They are not doing nothing on that regard.

Brundlefry mentions this as a workaround. 
What you want to do is select all clips, and Apply Trimming to destructively apply the slip-edits, and then disable Audiosnap on all the clips, either using the AS Palette or the Audiosnap section of the Clip tab in the Track Inspector.

Is brundlefry still with us?

[Mike B]

Hey @ChernobylStudios! We were in touch just yesterday- if you can, zip a project folder then send it over to me via email. I would love to know more about the famous long standing problem you mentioned, and if there's a particular project you've struggled with it would be the perfect candidate to test with. Find the biggest pain you can so we can check it out!

[David Baay]

6 hours ago, fitzj said:

Is brundlefry still with us?

Sort of. brundlefly is yours truly. The new forum defaulted to showing my real name, and I decided to leave it that way.

David Baay, a.k.a. brundlefly, a.k.a Seth Brundle.

[fitzj]

3 hours ago, David Baay said:

Sort of. brundlefly is yours truly. The new forum defaulted to showing my real name, and I decided to leave it that way.

David Baay, a.k.a. brundlefly, a.k.a Seth Brundle.

I only recognise a few of the old names on here now since the forum changed to a new platform. Nice to know you are still out there as you offered  very valuable information over the years.

[fitzj]

I think this video sums up well  what software can do to real music. Bitflipper posted this back in May. Perhaps its  good it doesn't work in bandlab.

 

[Robert McClellan]

On 10/25/2019 at 3:32 PM, fitzj said:

To keep everyone happy on here by all means  do these videos but use the stock plugins that come with Bandlab. Recording, mixing and mastering is around $47-77 Dollars for other Daws tutorials.   

Sounds like someone is just trying to make money??????

 

And time is money. Keep them coming man! Channels like yours are supplementing the original Cake TV stuff.