Customizing Arranger Sections

[rfssongs]

Just a few thoughts on customizing Arranger Section names.

On page 119 of the CW manual there is mention of customizing the names of arranger tracks. There are a few things that maybe not everybody realizes that would make this possible.

The file to edit is sectionTypes.json file that lives in C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Arranger, however this is within a hidden directory. (That is a dangerous place to be unless you are careful)

If you want to get there type C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Arranger into the header in a file explorer window.

Make a backup copy of the file you are going to edit.

Next right click on sectionTypes.json and choose "open with" & find the notepad app.

Once the file opens you will see the names in quotes, you can change these. For length 3840 is equal to one measure. You can also change the abbreviation.

Once you are settled make sure to save a Json type otherwise notepad will try to save it as a text file. Save it on the desktop, I could not get it to save directly to the file. Drag the file over to the original location.

 

Good luck.

 

In my experiment I found the following:

I found that changing the abbreviation did not work.

I found that trying to add additional section also did not work

I found that cakewalk had to reboot for the new names to be accepted, possibly more than once.

Edited November 18, 2022 by rfssongs
Typo

[msmcleod]

This is not the file to edit.  This is the default sections file that is copied at installation time to your user directory.

The real section types file is in %APPDATA%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Arranger\sectionTypes.json  ( there's actually a separate one for each language )

But there's no real need to edit manually in any case, as you can create/edit your own section types within Cakewalk itself.  Just create a section with the length / name / colour you want, then right click -> Section Type -> New.

Selecting Edit from that menu will allow you to change the abbreviation as well as all the other defaults for that section type.

Manually editing these files is discouraged.  If you mess it up,  you could lose section types in your existing projects.

[rfssongs]

There are a couple of reasons I did this

1) The custom sections I added disappeared for whatever reason

2) This is what was on page 119

3) I don't use the pre-determined sections

4) It worked

But I will get a look at the area you mentioned - Thanks.