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We need a new VST instrument inside Cakewalk


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BandLab has focused on delivering the best free professional DAW in the world!!!

So why so much concern for ancient plug-ins? I have all of the plugins from Sonar Platinum, but most of the free stuff out there blows them away from a technical perspective. A lot of that was based on 15 year old tech. The good stuff is still distributed in CbB... :)

If you want more, just go out and download the free plugins that are available, or buy professional plugins if you can afford them.

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The most useful thing they could re-release is an updated version of Beatscape. A sample player that did time-stretching synced to tempo and automatically chopped the samples and assigned them to keys. 

I'm still bummed about losing access to that one!

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Although my opinion on plugins may appear harsh, I am open to updating the integrated Cakewalk workflow for native internal samplers and such. From everything I can see and hear, that is most likely an area where Cakewalk has fallen behind the market leaders in  DAW tech...

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On 7/13/2021 at 4:19 PM, Waynebo said:

The most useful thing they could re-release is an updated version of Beatscape. A sample player that did time-stretching synced to tempo and automatically chopped the samples and assigned them to keys. 

I'm still bummed about losing access to that one!

I tried hard to like beatsacape but never found i useful. It's not that is sounded bad.  it just had a workflow that was clunky o me

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1 minute ago, abacab said:

Good to know. I've never looked at the BandLab app...

I revisit it from time to time.  it has improved greatly.  Maybe the only DAW that works well across phone and computer.  i am thinking of even testing on my xbox too

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On 7/14/2021 at 1:19 AM, Waynebo said:

I'm still bummed about losing access to that one!

Me too ... I loved Beatscape even though it had quirks (notes stuck, playing over the end of the frame, etc.).  I was really disappointed when it was shelved.  It had some of the best percussive sounds.

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I'll say this again because I have all of the old Cakewalk Sonar plugins. I love some of the old instruments too! They are cool for nostalgia's sake, and many of them even still sound great!

But I have a hard time justifying the hard drive space to keep them around. Time has marched on, and there are much better VST instruments available, even for free now!

If you want more, just go out and download the free plugins that are available, or buy professional plugins if you can afford them. Cakewalk as a core DAW is the best free DAW available anywhere. A lot of the previous purchase price for Sonar was tied up in premium instrument and effects add-ons. So just roll your own bundle now, and you are all set! :)

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I loved old cakewalk instruments too, but I agree with. abacab. There are too many free products that are probably better AND less likely to crash your current setup. 

Vital and Surge alone cover most of the synth options. 

Almost every drum and sampler option is superior to what cakewalk offered for . Beatscape at best was a not finished instrument that never caught on. 

Granted, finding a vast rompler like dimension pro for free is a challenge in an all in one product, but bbc discovery, labs, sine player, ample guitar/bass lite, kontact player, and  decent sampler will give you overall better sound quality.

I still have the installers for a number of cakewalk instruments and the only one i bother with is zeta+2 and mostly because it's one of the few synths i have that VIP software works with.

 

 

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I agree with abacab, besides Dimension Pro 1.5 (still working without issues on my system) wich has even now really good sounds available. Same for Pentagon, Zeta 2 and Rapture Pro. I am using them on almost every project. 

But you are right, if you cant use them, you have many options, even if you are looking for feebies only. ?

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On 7/3/2021 at 3:37 PM, Andris Rinkis said:

It would be great to easy manipulate with audio -  stretch, transpose, detune, warp, loop, chop etc.. its great technology and its very creative thing

Isn’t the Cakewalk platform  a .wav clip sound/audio designer?  I think Cakewalk at its core has always been a program for creating and designing .acid files and for designing and manipulating samples and loops.  
 

Though it isn’t obvious, considering that it looks like it functions like most DAW’s do, but Cakewalk is like a super sampler that eventually added in audio recording capabilities.  When using Cakewalk through that context, It’s functionality and features make more sense to me.  

Cakewalk to me feels more like a specialty software hub controller for control surfaces and external hardware.  Maybe like the mainframe mothership for all of the digital external gear and mixing boards to sync up to and enable total and tactile audio/midi production.

 Other daws feel designed specifically for point-n-click and click-n-drag audio production.

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10 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

I still have the installers for a number of cakewalk instruments and the only one i bother with is zeta+2 and mostly because it's one of the few synths i have that VIP software works with.

What other synths have you tried with VIP that didn't work? It's hit or miss, but most synths that I've tried will at least import patches manually.

Before Akai shut down their user groups, I managed to grab a few VIP user created plugin maps for Dim Pro, Rapture, and Z3TA+2. They don't have all the expansions, but cover the factory presets.

Not all plugins will import presets to VIP, because some plugins refuse to share preset info with their host.  It's problem with the plugin. Akai never tried to put restrictions on 3rd party plugins like Native Instruments does with Komplete Kontrol and their NKS ecosystem.

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6 hours ago, abacab said:

What other synths have you tried with VIP that didn't work? It's hit or miss, but most synths that I've tried will at least import patches manually.

Before Akai shut down their user groups, I managed to grab a few VIP user created plugin maps for Dim Pro, Rapture, and Z3TA+2. They don't have all the expansions, but cover the factory presets.

Not all plugins will import presets to VIP, because some plugins refuse to share preset info with their host.  It's problem with the plugin. Akai never tried to put restrictions on 3rd party plugins like Native Instruments does with Komplete Kontrol and their NKS ecosystem.

I should have specified "with low effort".  Off the top of my head I know my UVI stuff would not work.  I think we discussed this before. Akai's big errors were abandoning project and shutting down the exchange. I think most of us are willing to manually input a fav synth or two, but nobody is going through all of their native instrument expansions or kontakt libraries. 

 

I have mixed feelings about nks. I like that it actually works but hate the restrictions.

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5 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

Akai's big errors were abandoning project and shutting down the exchange. I think most of us are willing to manually input a fav synth or two, but nobody is going through all of their native instrument expansions or kontakt libraries. 

Agreed. I could never get it to work correctly with SampleTank, for instance. So I decided to stay focused on what would work, and it that regard VIP had much more capability than NKS. Sad that Akai/inMusic abandoned the project. A lot of lost potential!

Best workaround that I found is to use what works using VIP as a plugin on an instrument track within Cakewalk (or whatever DAW you choose), and then using Kontakt, or SampleTank, etc.,  as separate instrument tracks in your DAW.

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