more on Cakewalk by Bandlab

I had some issues with crashes and was trying to get some answers from tech support. When I didn't hear from them, I decided to go into the forums and see if I could find some answers there. To get answers, I had to sign in or create an account for the forums. Apparently my account with Bandlab wasn't good enough so I had to create a separate account so I did what was needed to do so. Lo and behold after clicking on send, I received a message stating that I was not allowed to create an account on the site, in other words, I was banned.

I tried writing them to find out why? Never did receive an answer. I guess these people at Bandlab don't want to hear about problems with the program nor are they interested in helping out. Maybe I needed to kiss some ass first before attempting to report problems. I mean common guys, a company is only as good as the support team behind them. Sure I get it, the program is free so what gives me the right to complain about issues? Get answers in the forum right? But if I can't even do that because they banned me for trying to get answers in the first place, what am I supposed to do?

Cakewalk by Bandlab still has a lot of potential once they get many of the issues resolved such as crashing when using 2 TTS-1 soft-synths in the same project, or similar effects imported from third parties. Using just one TTS-1 doesn't always work especially if I want to add special effects on just one instrument because the way it's set up is the effect will affect all instruments. To resolve that problem, I had to solo the instrument and then bounce the entire project to bounce to tracks. By doing it this way, I now have a wave track instead of midi and can add whatever effects to it I want.

I had initially imported some effects from another music program I had and used them successfully on several projects. The other day, once I opened up Cakewalk and the project I was working on, it crashed. It asked me first, should it save a backup file for the project. I clicked yes because in the past I lost the entire project after clicking on no. It also showed me which of the effects was the problem causing the crash in my project and then created a mini dump. I was puzzled as to why this particular effect would make the program crash so I opened up another project with that same effect and no crash.

I decided to open up the backup file it had just created thinking that it might now work properly. NOPE! It too crashed and had to start all over with the same nonsense. Each time I opened up either the original project or the backup, Cakewalk would crash. This is what I've been dealing with since I downloaded Cakewalk. I had over 30 mini dumps and after inspecting each one, I still had no clue as to why this was happening. Musiclab certainly wasn't about to give me any help. They obviously don't give a rats ass! I couldn't find anything in the forums. Plenty of kiss ass stuff in there but nothing dealing with my issues.

There was no way I was going to open my project file without it crashing and I was furious and frustrated. I had spent days on it and was almost done. Now I'm going to have to start from scratch, no way, there's got to be a solution to this. I decided to go into Utilities\plugin manager and click on each of the plugins on the left column until I found the particular fx, causing the problem, in the right column. I highlighted the fx by clicking on it and then clicked on exclude plug-ins. My problem fx disappeared from the registered plug-in list and then decided to press the scan vst plugins. I closed the window once it was done and went to open up the project file which wouldn't open without crashing.

No problem opening it up and no crash! I located the now defunct fx and replaced it with a different but similar fx. The fx giving me issues was no longer on the list of fxs in my project.  I finished my project no thanks to Bandlab. No wonder it's free! Hurry up and get out the product, we'll worry about fixing it later seems to be the norm these days with anything you get!

Interestingly, they just came out with a new version of Cakewalk...2019.05 with many of the issues fixed I told them about and was trying to solve. We'll see how the new version works out in the coming days.

Features & Enhancements

• ARA 2 (Audio Random Access) plug-in support. ARA 2 provides tighter, more efficient app integration of next generation ARA plug-ins such as Melodyne 4, including sharing tracks, regions, selection, as well as other project settings
• Improved editing of ARA 2 regions with a shared view across all plug-in instances
• Multi-clip slip stretching (hold down CTRL+SHIFT, then drag any selected clip edge to stretch all selected clips, or use the Stretch tool)
• The global Timing tool has been renamed to Stretch tool
• The Gain knob in the Inspector controls either audio Input Gain or MIDI Velocity Offset for Instrument tracks, depending on whether the Audio tab or MIDI tab is selected
• Updated zplane élastique v3.3.0.23501 audio stretching and pitch shifting with bug fixes and performance enhancements
• The Stretch tool (available by right-clicking the Edit tool in the Control Bar) now works on multiple selected clips, and also supports lasso selection and time selection

Bug Fixes

• Clip Properties Inspector shows incorrect M:B:T clip length (actual length + 1 measure)
• Step Record continues to record to the original track after you switch focus to another armed track
• Arpeggiator Rate control fails to update when the parameter is automated
• MIDI only projects are immediately marked as dirty on file open
• Accessing menu commands can unnecessarily mark a project as dirty
• Bounce to Clip(s) results in mono data if a clip envelope is selected; Bounce to Clip(s) is now unavailable if the selection does not contain MIDI or audio data
• Intermittent crash when opening projects
• Closing a project immediately after opening can cause a crash
• Staff view fails to persist on project load
• Opening lyrics view when transport is playing causes crash
• Slip editing allows clips to be made zero length
• Clip waveform sometimes disappears while slip stretching
• Waveform display in split audio clip appears to adjust crop when slip stretching
• Slip Stretching MIDI clip causes clip data to disappear
• Slip Stretching cropped MIDI clip causes clip data to change unexpectedly
• Undoing slip stretching of audio clips could sometimes not restore the clip to its original state
• Slip Stretching clip to max, then dragging in opposite direction causes clamp to fail
• After stretching a clip to the max 400%, releasing the mouse, then attempting to stretch the left edge further causes all stretching to get lost unexpectedly
• Drag copying an ARA Region FX clip to create a new clip can result in a crash
• Tracks still visible in Melodyne after deleting or freezing tracks with Region FX clips
• Melodyne UI doesn't show slip stretching preview while editing until mouse up
• Canceling from a slip edit or slip stretch doesn't restore ARA regions in Melodyne
• When slip stretching a Melodyne Region FX clip from the left side, Undo does not restore the Melodyne data to its original location
• Undoing a copied Melodyne clip leaves blobs visible in Melodyne
• Cropping a stretched Melodyne clip causes blobs to shift unexpectedly
• Melodyne does not update when changing clip start time or duration from Clip Inspector
• Melodyne doesn't show preview while dragging Melodyne Region FX clips
• Clip loses focus in Melodyne after dragging to a new track

There are still some display issues with some softsynths Even tho I can hear it, it shows that I've done nothing to the controls. Aria player for example shows the instrument tracks as being empty after choosing one. I can hear the instrument when I play the project.