Audiomodern Chordjam sequencer does not work with Cakewalk

[Kai-Jürgen Lietz]

I just bought myself Chordjam from Audiomodern. So I might be wrong about this. But I tested it with another DAW and there everything worked fine so it is something in Cakewalk that makes the manual input in Chordjam sequencer not work in the Cakewalk.

I realized this in my Livestream (in German language) but you can see that the interface does not behave like it should. Do not watch the whole episode! Just the few seconds after the starting points. The only reason I did not take the video down yet was for this post.

And here you can see how it should behave (unfortunately in Ableton Live):

 Usually I do not have any problems in Cakewalk with my plugins. But since it works with other DAWs I thought People should know that Chordjam won't work in full capacity with our favorite DAW.

 

[abacab]

5 hours ago, Kai-Jürgen Lietz said:

Usually I do not have any problems in Cakewalk with my plugins. But since it works with other DAWs I thought People should know that Chordjam won't work in full capacity with our favorite DAW.

I noticed that you were using the VST3 plugin format with Cakewalk in your example. Did you test the VST2?

Sometimes with Cakewalk one plugin format may work fine, while the other will not. Worth a try!

[Kurre]

If a plugin need control of the transport it can't by default on an empty track.

To get the transport moving you have to make a selection of the first measure and make a loop of the selection.

[abacab]

2 hours ago, Kurre said:

If a plugin need control of the transport it can't by default on an empty track.

If you look at the Cakewalk video he posted, he cannot get the plugin UI to let him drag a note duration in the sequencer. That appears to be the "not working" part.

But if you watch him in the Ableton Live video, he just drags the notes out in the plugin sequencer, then plays the keys live manually with his mouse. The transport is not running until later in his demo.

Edited September 11, 2022 by abacab

[Kurre]

31 minutes ago, abacab said:

If you look at the Cakewalk video he posted, he cannot get the plugin UI to let him drag a note duration in the sequencer. That appears to be the "not working" part.

But if you watch him in the Ableton Live video, he just drags the notes out in the plugin sequencer, then plays the keys live manually with his mouse. The transport is not running until later in his demo.

Yea, i reacted to the short flashes of midi activity and didn't watch the whole thing.

So using chordjam from unify in Cakewalk is not a problem then?

[abacab]

42 minutes ago, Kurre said:

So using chordjam from unify in Cakewalk is not a problem then?

In his Cakewalk project he has Chordjam on track #1, and Unify on Track # 2. So it looks like he is using Chordjam to send MIDI out to Unify to generate his sounds. I don't see him using Chordjam inside of Unify.

[Kai-Jürgen Lietz]

Thanks @abacab and @Kurre.

I looked, but there is no VST2 version of that plugin in Cakewalk. Sounds strange, but maybe since VST2 is no longer officially supported by Steinberg there might be none.(?)

Using Chordjam from inside Unify works like a charm. But that is to be expected since Unify's programming is highly efficient. I still have to find the plugin that doesn't work with it.

So Unify is a good workaround for the time being. Thank you!

 

[abacab]

2 hours ago, Kai-Jürgen Lietz said:

I looked, but there is no VST2 version of that plugin in Cakewalk. Sounds strange, but maybe since VST2 is no longer officially supported by Steinberg there might be none.(?)

The Chordjam product page indicates that VST2 should be available. Perhaps you have selected this option to hide VST2 in Cakewalk if VST3 is available?

File - VST Settings

https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=0x22B07

[Kai-Jürgen Lietz]

@abacab Thanks! My bad, the option was set to hide VST2 if VST3 is available. Interesting though, Scaler's VST2 was still there.

Anyway, in a short test VST2 showed the same (non-)result as VST3 ?

[abacab]

5 hours ago, Kai-Jürgen Lietz said:

@abacab Thanks! My bad, the option was set to hide VST2 if VST3 is available. Interesting though, Scaler's VST2 was still there.

Anyway, in a short test VST2 showed the same (non-)result as VST3 ?

The VST3 replacement feature is only available if the developer sets the proper "flag" in the plugin. Some brands do not have that enabled, and so you will continue to see both VST2 and VST3 for them regardless of the host's plugin settings.

Sorry to hear that the VST2 version has the same issue. You will probably need to contact Cakewalk support as well as the plugin developer. I'm guessing that the developer probably did not test it with this DAW, and a plugin incompatibility issue like this could be caused by either party.

Plugin to host interface issues come up now and then because the plugin standards are not always "standard". Typically they cause crashes, but non-functional user interfaces can also be a problem that varies DAW by DAW.

[Kurre]

Ok. Tested chordjam trial in Cakewalk and Reaper. Without unify or other extra hosts.

Reaper worked with both vst2 and 3. Had to open the routing window to get some sound from Numa player.

Cakewalk had problem with both vst2 and 3. That sequence parts thing worked the first time but never again after that. As described earlier i got Chordjam activated by looping the track, Also got sound from Surge.

Cakewalk clearly doesn't like Chordjam. Had a couple of shutdowns too when i probably clicked a bit to much on things in Chordjam.

[abacab]

The Chordjam User Manual shows routing for Ableton Live, Logic, Cubase, Bitwig, Reaper, Pro Tools, Studio One, & FL Studio.

No mention of Cakewalk... not that unusual as some developers seem to overlook Cakewalk. Probably need to get the attention of Audiomodern support.

And it might help things along if you also sent the bug report to Cakewalk Support.

Edited September 14, 2022 by abacab

[Kurre]

I have 2 minidump files if a Cakewalk staff member wants them.

[Kai-Jürgen Lietz]

Thanks @abacab and @Kurre.

I had a parallel discussion in the audiomodern forum. 

There is kind of a workaround. Though I would call it rather a tiptoe-around it. If you just click to put the chord into the sequencer and use a second click and hold to enlarge the chord-area Chordjam works in Cakewalk as intended and it will work for the session. But if you do it like I did, it is non-recoverable in the session.

That being said, the combination of Chordjam and Cakewalk crashed once so hard that Cakewalk wouldn't recognize one of my MIDI keyboards anymore afterwards. It was a pain in the ### to make Cakewalk accept input from it again. ?

[abacab]

6 hours ago, Kai-Jürgen Lietz said:

That being said, the combination of Chordjam and Cakewalk crashed once so hard that Cakewalk wouldn't recognize one of my MIDI keyboards anymore afterwards. It was a pain in the ### to make Cakewalk accept input from it again. ?

https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/articles/900005995966-How-do-I-submit-a-crash-or-bug-report-

Edited September 15, 2022 by abacab

[abacab]

10 hours ago, Kurre said:

I have 2 minidump files if a Cakewalk staff member wants them.

https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/articles/900005995966-How-do-I-submit-a-crash-or-bug-report-

Edited September 15, 2022 by abacab